


Unaligned, Hot and Bothered in the Delta Quadrant

by lezcheck



Category: Lost Girl, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-10
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 05:51:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8000917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lezcheck/pseuds/lezcheck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of my favorite things about fan fiction is the ability to ask "What if?" So:  what if Bo stopped Kenzi from going through the portal at the end of Season 4 of Lost Girl, went through herself instead, and what if Lauren went with her? And what if they didn't end up in Valhalla, but instead wound up in the Delta Quadrant in 2376 aboard the USS Voyager? Could they help Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine find their way to each other? And could they find their way home?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Portal

Bo watched, paralyzed, as Kenzi took step after inexorable step toward the portal. She felt like she was trapped in a bad dream, able to see the disaster about to happen but powerless to do anything to stop it. The portal throbbed in time with her heart, which beat more and more painfully as Kenzi drew closer to the opening.

Until something snapped. She didn't make a conscious decision, but acted out of pure animal instinct. She sprinted toward Kenzi, rapidly catching up, and tackled her. The two women rolled and landed in a heap about ten yards shy of the portal.

Kenzi rolled into a fetal position, clutching her stomach with the wind knocked out of her. Bo turned a concerned eye to her friend, but her head quickly jerked up and over toward the portal. Her eyes flared blue and she rose like an automaton, walking toward the opening that seemed to beckon to her.

The entire room was oblivious to what was happening - the Revenants still fought, the Fae still chopped off their heads, and only Dyson and Trick seemed to take any note of Bo's actions. They exchanged a glance - Dyson's eyes full of anguish, Trick's full of resignation.

A small commotion ensued at the doorway. The knot of Revenants that turned toward the noise quickly shied away. Incredibly, the Revenants began to melt away from the door, and two figures made their way hastily to the front of the room.

Dragging a reluctant Evony in her wake, Lauren sprayed the last of her Revenant repellent and tossed the empty canister to the ground. The noxious substance - invisible to the human and Fae olfactory systems, but intolerable to the undead - lingered in the air around them, granting Lauren, Evony, Dyson and Trick temporary reprieve from the fray.

Lauren started to ask a question, but her expression turned to utter horror when she looked at the portal and saw…

"BO! NO!"

Dyson made a grab for her arm, but the doctor was too quick. She sprinted toward Bo and made to tackle her, an action that created a disorienting _deja vu_ for Dyson and Trick.

Bo was not to be taken down as easily as Kenzi, though. She was not a reluctant human making her terrified but determined way toward sudden death. She was a succubus in full thrall to whatever siren song called to her ancient blood from the portal.

Lauren's arms closed around her torso, but Bo barely budged. In fact, she kept walking, with Lauren clinging desperately to her waist, her feet trying to find purchase on the rocky ground. It flashed through Lauren's mind that the scenario was similar to several cartoons she had watched on Saturday mornings as a child, with an animated tiny mouse trying with all its might to stop a much larger cat or dog and instead being dragged along in its wake, legs scrabbling to find purchase on the ground. It would have been funny if she hadn't known she was being towed toward her - and Bo's - certain death.

"Please Bo! Fight it! You have to stop!"

Bo paused. Now Lauren herself was struck by _deja vu_ \- it was so like the time that Bo had been in raging succubus mode when confronted with the Manta at the Bacchus' sex club. There had been that same pause, that same momentary recognition where Bo had seemed to _see_ Lauren.

Bo turned her head, and Lauren's relief was replaced by renewed terror when she saw that Bo's eyes were still a brilliant, pulsing blue. Bo opened her mouth, and all the Revenants ceased their fighting as Bo drew their chi from their mouths and into her own. Hundreds of undead fell to their knees and then flat on their faces as Bo drained them dry, then took the last final steps to enter the portal.

Still clinging to Bo's waist, a part of Lauren's brain dispassionately registered that Bo had drained only the Revenants, and that neither she, Dyson, Trick nor Evony had been the target of Bo's mass chi-suck this time.

 _That's great progress toward directed chi extraction - that kind of regulated selection points to a new level of control, Bo!_ Lauren thought to herself, absurdly proud, right before the entire world dissolved in a flash of brilliant light.

* * *

Kathryn Janeway was tired. Fatigued, yes - she hadn't had enough sleep, working straight through the alpha, beta and gamma shifts. Coffee had ceased to give her any jolt of energy, and instead was just making her stomach hurt. Her eyes felt dry and strained from staring at the viewscreens for so long, and her shoulders ached from being hunched over a PADD working on scenarios. Even the hum of the warp engines, usually so comforting to the starship captain, was more of an irritant than a balm.

But she was also crabby. And not a little of the reason for her irritation had to do with the blonde Borg who had been her constant companion for the past 24 hours. Fatigue didn't seem to affect Seven - she appeared as calm, kempt and mentally acute now as she did when the two women had started their marathon project. Not a single strand of hair escaped from Seven's French twist, and the Borg's purple biosuit seemed as fresh now as it had at the beginning of the project.

But it wasn't Seven's appearance that was irritating the captain. It was the constant stream of objections to every angle from which Janeway tried to approach the wormhole project. Fly directly into the anomaly? The hull couldn't withstand the gravitational forces if their angle of approach was even a bit off. Slingshot around a nearby star and rocket in at high speed? Steering with thrusters at those velocities was too crude, and they would almost certainly bypass their target, at best, or smash Voyager to smithereens, at worst. Use photon torpedos to blast a bigger opening in the wormhole?

Janeway suppressed a smirk at that one. She had only suggested it to see what Seven's reaction would be. The withering glance that Seven had leveled in her direction was worth it.

But it wasn't just Seven's objections that were bothering Janeway. It was that she was right. None of the scenarios they had come up with so far were remotely workable. Wormholes were few and far between in the Delta Quadrant, and the crew had been excited to find this one in what seemed to be unclaimed territory. The anomalies, which permitted instantaneous travel between two far-away points, to date had been jealously claimed and guarded by the local muscle - including the Borg.

Having time to study a wormhole at leisure was unexpected and Janeway jumped at the chance. Part of the problem with wormholes was that if no one had yet been through a particular one, you had no idea where it might end up. You could emerge in the same quadrant only a few parsecs away, or you could end up on the complete opposite end of the galaxy. The prospect of landing her crew potentially even further away from the Alpha Quadrant wasn't a risk that the captain was willing to take, regardless of how frustrated she was.

The second problem with this particular wormhole was probably why it wasn't claimed by any species. It seemed unusable. It oscillated, and not on any regular frequency that she and Seven had been able to deduce, either. It opened and closed at random, and from what they could tell, its orientation also shifted. Taking a starship into the wormhole as it stood now would be a dicey proposition.

That's why she and Seven had been spending so much time together - they were trying to find a way to stabilize the wormhole. If they could find a way to prop it open and keep it still, they might have a better shot at trying to trace its path with probes. As it was, the forty-two probes they had launched already had all failed to enter. It was almost if the wormhole could sense the approach of the probes and deliberately denied them entry.

When Janeway had voiced this observation to Seven, the Borg had informed her that humans often anthropomorphized inanimate objects and assigned them motivations that were entirely absent. Janeway had in return informed Seven in a mock eureka moment that perhaps part of the problem with fighting the Borg enemy was that humans anthropomorphized them overmuch.

Seven's disdainful glare had told Janeway that she was not unaware of the unflattering double meaning of the captain's statement, and the women had worked in silence for a period of time. Janeway was wondering if she should apologize when Seven broke the silence.

"Captain."

"Yes?"

"What about directed, prolonged phaser fire aimed at the trailing edge of the wormhole opening?"

Janeway sighed. "Seven, we already discussed that a few hours ago. We simply don't have enough power in the phaser banks for a long or powerful enough pulse to get the job done."

"True," Seven said. "We don't. But we do have a surplus of dilithium crystals."

Janeway paused. "You can't possibly be suggesting that we try to inject antimatter into the wormhole. We have no idea what consequences might result."

"Not antimatter, Captain."

"Then what?"

"Refraction."

Janeway frowned as she took that in.

"Split the nadion particles in the phaser beam with the dilithium?"

Seven nodded. "And then refocus the components of the beam back on the wormhole. The varying frequencies in each component beam will have a greater chance of achieving a harmonic with the oscillation of the wormhole."

"Then we aim a non-refracted phaser beam at the wormhole, to fix it in place?"

Seven nodded. "Precisely."

"That's so harebrained...that it just might work."

"It will work," Seven stated with ultimate certainty, ignoring the captain's comparison of her scheme to the thought processes of a large rabbit. "I've been mapping out the path of the refracted phaser beam and we need to place dilithium prisms here and here." She indicated a PADD she was holding.

Janeway leaned over Seven's calculations. "Actually...here." She moved the prisms several hundred kilometers to the left and right. "You made a mathematical error."

"Borg do not make mathematical errors," Seven informed Janeway, but frowned at the PADD.

"Don't sweat it, Seven," Janeway said, clapping Seven on the arm, her good mood restored.

"You're only human."


	2. Wormhole

Kathryn Janeway's fatigue was a thing of the past - she was vibrating with excitement as Voyager prepared to put Seven's plan into action. The second wind she had gotten after grasping Seven's scheme, also fueled by more coffee, had made the last twelve hours fly by. With B'Elanna's help, she and the Borg had synthesized and refined two dilithium crystal prisms that would be large and strong enough to not only survive a prolonged pulse from Voyager's phaser banks, but also to refract the nadion particle beam into distinct streams with unique wavelengths.

After briefing the senior staff and having B'Elanna, assisted by Seven in Engineering, divert all available power to the phaser banks, she stood on the bridge, containing the tension she felt in her compact frame. She felt like she was thrumming in time with the warp core.

Janeway cleared her throat.

"Energize."

Harry Kim slowly increased the power to the phasers, and a stream of intensifying light shot out of Voyager in a divergent pattern, hitting the prisms. For a moment, nothing happened.

"Tuvok. Report."

"Phasers at 80% capacity, Captain. The prisms are currently absorbing the nadion particles."

"Increase power to 85%, Mr. Kim."

Harry nodded. Janeway could swear that she felt a slight shudder from Voyager as more power was consumed by the phaser banks.

The prisms suddenly glowed with a bright flash of light, and began to send converging beams toward the wormhole. They met, but didn't touch, at precisely the trailing edge of the visible wormhole, just as Seven had calculated.

Well, with help from Janeway, anyway.

"Report."

"It appears that the particles are being absorbed by the wormhole, captain."

"Damn," Janeway said. If the particles were actually entering the wormhole instead of focusing on the edge of the space surrounding the opening, then they would never build up enough energy to fix the wormhole in space.

"Captain?"

"Yes, Mr. Kim."

"If we increase power by 3%, that might generate enough particle density to exceed the absorbent capacity of the wormhole."

"Do it."

Now Voyager really did shudder perceptibly as Harry fed more power to the phasers.

"Captain. Structural integrity fields are weakening," Tuvok said.

"How long do we have?"

"Forty-five seconds until we lose structural integrity completely."

Tuvok's voice was calm, but Janeway knew the situation was close to dire. She opened her mouth to give the order to Harry to abort when Voyager suddenly jerked forward. With so much power diverted to the phasers, the inertial dampeners were slow to respond, causing her and the rest of the bridge crew to stumble.

"Harry. Shut it down."

"I can't, Captain," Harry said, the stress evident in his voice. "It's like something in that wormhole has grabbed onto the nadion beam and won't let it go. The energy output is almost at maximum."

Janeway didn't hesitate. "Tuvok. Fire photon torpedos at those prisms. Get rid of them."

"Aye, Captain." Tuvok tapped at the console. A second later two torpedos shot out from Voyager's hull straight into the prisms.

The noise and light were enormous. Janeway and the bridge crew were blinded by the flash, even considering that they were seeing it through a viewscreen, and Janeway mentally cursed. With all the technology aboard a Starfleet vessel, couldn't someone design a way to turn down the contrast on the viewscreen when an especially bright flash of light happened?

But she had bigger fish to fry right now, because the damn phasers were still firing.

"Mr. Kim?"

"Captain, I don't understand," Harry said. "Destroying the prisms should have terminated the phaser stream, but now they're focused directly on the wormhole."

Janeway's eyes had cleared enough that she could see he was right. It looked like Voyager had a tether attached to its front, and that the other end was firmly stuck to a fixed point in space. Like a dog on a leash, Janeway thought sourly.

The phasers usually looked orange through the viewscreens, but Janeway noted that the end of the phaser beams that were buried in the wormhole had acquired an electric blue tinge that was working its way backward toward Voyager. _That can't be good._

"Ten seconds, Captain." Tuvok's voice held a slight note of stress, which Janeway knew for a Vulcan meant abject panic.

"B'Elanna!"

But before Janeway could give the order to shut down the warp core, the end of the leash suddenly broke free and slammed back into Voyager. Janeway was thrown off her feet, miraculously landing in her command chair.

For a moment the bridge was silent.

"Report."

Harry Kim quickly went through all the sensor logs and checked the ship's systems. "Minor damage on decks five and eight," he said. "We've blown out a few of the bio-neural gel packs."

"Captain?"

"Yes, Tuvok?"

"I'm detecting two additional life forms aboard. On deck four."

Janeway knew Voyager better than the back of her hand. Deck four was directly behind the phasers. Whatever had happened with the wormhole, it looked like they had picked up some passengers.

"Tuvok. You're with me."

* * *

Janeway looked across the conference room table at the two unlikely intruders she and Tuvok had found behind the phaser array on deck four. They appeared a little shellshocked, but surprisingly not too disheveled, considering their trip through the wormhole and eventual emergence into Voyager.

They looked humanoid, and very likely were human, though she would need to have the Doctor examine them to be sure. They were due for a trip to sickbay anyway, since one of them had a cut on her forehead that needed to be healed.

Janeway was used to seeing all manner of alien garb from her travels, but their outfits confused her. The women didn't look at all dressed for interstellar travel. The one with dark hair was wearing a low-cut top, snug pants, and a jacket with a historical fastening device that Janeway recognized as a zipper. Her jacket and pants looked as if they were made from animal skin. Janeway wasn't unfamiliar with leather, having grown up in Indiana on Earth, but wearing it on one's body was considered barbaric.

The blonde woman, on the other hand, was wearing a white shirt that fastened with similarly outdated clasps - buttons. The top of her shirt folded over into a collar, a detail that Janeway recognized, especially since she had spent some time in the 20th century herself, but very, very old-fashioned. Her tan jacket had lapels in the style of the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth. And most unusual of all, the blonde woman was wearing pants made of denim. While a replicator could create anything from a pattern, Janeway had simply never seen anyone wearing jeans aboard her ship.

Altogether, the captain was very confused.

She and Tuvok had found the women lying on the floor on deck four, and after waking and checking them to make sure they didn't have any critical injuries, she had asked them if they would accompany her to the conference room. They had exchanged a look and had followed her, glancing around at the starship as they walked.

Janeway had asked Seven to join them to help piece together what might have gone wrong with the wormhole based on what the women had to say.

"I'm Kathryn Janeway, captain of the Federation starship Voyager. This is my security chief, Tuvok, and my astrometrics officer, Seven of Nine," she began, and paused.

The women exchanged another glance. The brunette spoke first.

"I'm Bo."

"I'm Lauren."

Janeway's diplomatic training had prepared her for meeting many different kinds of people under different circumstances, and she sensed both reticence and caution. The blonde - Lauren - was giving both Tuvok and Seven a curious look, which they both returned with impassive visages.

Bo, on the other hand, kept her gaze fixed on the captain. Janeway sensed a kindred fighting spirit in the other woman.

"I want you both to know that you're welcome here, and you'll be safe aboard Voyager for as long as it takes to get you both back to where you were. I'm not sure where you were on the other end of the wormhole, but now you're in the Delta Quadrant."

The captain paused. There had been no flash of recognition or alarm on Bo and Lauren's faces. So either they already knew they were in the Delta Quadrant, or they didn't really comprehend the import of what Janeway had said: that if they were human, then they were a very, very long way from home.

Janeway decided to go with the direct approach.

"We are explorers, and we were brought to this area of space against our will. We're trying to find a way home, and we were investigating the wormhole to try to find out where it led. So just so we have all our cards on the table - our offer to help you return home is not contingent on anything, but we are also very interested in knowing more about where you came from. Perhaps we can help each other."

She was met with more blank looks, until Bo finally spoke up.

"Space? Is this some kind of a geeky Dark Fae joke?"

Janeway hesitated. Whatever question she had been expecting, this wasn't it.

"I assure you, the captain rarely jokes in formal diplomatic situations," Seven said.

Janeway held up a hand. "Hold on. Let me start over. Where are you two from?"

This time it was Lauren who spoke. "We're from Toronto," she said.

"Toronto. A major city in North America on Earth," Tuvok said.

Bo looked at him. "Yeah. Major enough, anyway."

Janeway gripped the arms of her chair. This news was almost too much for her to bear without leaping up and letting out a loud whoop. _They were from Earth! The wormhole led to the Alpha Quadrant!_

"So - forgive me, but I need to ask - your species. Are you human?" she said.

"Lauren is. I'm a succubus."

Janeway frowned. Of all the alien species she had studied at the Academy and had met during the course of her career, s _uccubus_ wasn't one that she immediately recalled. In fact, she only knew the term succubus from…

"From mythology - a female demon or supernatural entity in folklore, traced back to medieval legend, that appears in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual activity," Seven recited. She looked at Bo with renewed interest. "Is that accurate?"

Bo snorted. "Not quite. There's a lot of misinformation out there about us. Don't trust Wikipedia. But hold on a minute - what did you mean about being in space?"

Tuvok spoke for the first time. "This vessel is currently located in the Delta Quadrant - about seventy thousand light-years from Earth."

"And for those of us who flunked science?" Bo asked.

Lauren turned to her. "Bo, they're saying that we're really far from Earth. Farther than we could get back to within our lifetimes." She turned back to the group. "But the space program hasn't advanced nearly that far - _Voyager I_ left the solar system last year, sure, but I have a feeling that you're not talking about that. Are you?"

Seven of Nine spoke again. " _Voyager I -_ a 722-kilogram space probe launched by humans several centuries before First Contact. A crude device that sent back little of value to Earth," she added.

Janeway shot Seven an irritated look. "Thank you, Seven."

Lauren ignored the byplay and leaned forward across the table.

"What year is this?"

Captain Janeway looked away from Seven back to Lauren.

"Star date 52973.4."

Lauren shook her head. "No, I mean, what's the year? Where we're from, it's 2014. But I'm getting the feeling that's not the year here."

"By the Gregorian A.D. calendar system that was in use during the 21st Century on Earth, the year is 2376," Seven replied.

Lauren exhaled.

"Oh, boy," she said.

"2376?!" Bo said. "What the bleeding Pyrippus are you talking about?"

"Tell me more about this wormhole," Lauren said, leaning forward and looking intently from Janeway to Seven.

Janeway explained how they had run across the wormhole and had been unable to map any part of it due to its oscillations, so had been trying to stabilize the opening.

"And then you two showed up," she concluded. "Not what we were expecting. So you tell me - what were you doing on the other end of the wormhole?"

Lauren raised her eyebrows and looked at Bo.

"It's a little complicated. But basically, I accidentally opened up a portal to Hell because my asshole father is trying to return to our plane of existence from whatever dimension he's been banished to. My best friend read a prophecy and tried to sacrifice herself to close the portal because she's my heart, but I couldn't let her do it. Lauren kind of got caught up in my wake."

Now it was Janeway's turn to look blank. Starfleet had definitely _not_ prepared her for this.

"I see. And what's a succubus?"

Lauren spoke. "A succubus is a species of Fae - that's the genus; it's an umbrella term for beings with supernatural powers - that feeds off the life force and sexual energy of humans or other Fae."

The excitement Janeway had felt upon learning that the women were from Earth quickly drained away, and she touched a hand to her temple, where she felt the beginnings of a headache start to throb behind her right eye.

Clearly these two women were crazy.

"Very well," she said. "Let's go to Sickbay - our doctor can heal the cut on your head and make sure you don't have any other injuries. Tuvok?" The emphasis in her voice made it clear to the security chief that she wanted him with her in case their visitors decided to do something unpredictable.

_And the Doctor can also assess whether they're suffering from delusions or hallucinations, and help figure out where they're really from._


	3. Science

"Fascinating!" the doctor said. "I've never seen physiology like this before."

He moved the sensor slowly over Bo's abdomen and torso, staring raptly at the tricorder in his hand.

"This is definitely not the same reaction you had when you examined me," Bo muttered _sotto voce_ to Lauren, who was standing near the biobed, the cut on her head freshly healed by the Doctor's dermal regenerator _._

Lauren grinned.

"Your physiology is similar to a human's," the Doctor said to Bo. "You have all the same basic plumbing, and your body metabolizes glucose through your digestive system, all very textbook. But you also appear to have a method for importing ATP directly into the mitochondria in your cells, bypassing the normal metabolic processes. And your blood composition is _very_ different."

"Higher than expected amounts of platelets and leukocytes," Lauren interjected.

"Yes, by about fourfold," the Doctor replied, looking over at her with interest.

"The platelets can increase to tenfold when she needs to heal. And you found pyruvate in her blood too?"

"Pirate what?" said Bo.

"Pyruvate," Lauren said. "It's a carrier molecule that's found in the cytoplasm of cells - it brings adenosine triphosphate - you probably remember it as ATP - into the mitochondria. It's an energy source for the cells - well, that and NADH..."

"Oh, right," Bo interrupted, rolling her eyes. "Thanks for clearing that up."

"Exactly!" the Doctor said to Lauren. "Pyruvate simply doesn't have any function in the bloodstream. Are you a fellow student of Hippocrates?"

Lauren smiled. "I'm a doctor, and a scientist. I've been studying Bo's physiology for a few years now."

Bo raised her eyebrows and suppressed a smirk.

"Excellent!" the Doctor said. "We can compare notes. The tricorder found some additional compounds in Bo's bloodstream that the computer wasn't able to immediately identify."

Janeway cleared her throat. "Doctor, I'm glad you've found a kindred spirit, but what I want to know is - is this woman a danger to any of us on this ship?"

The Doctor looked at the captain, and then back at Bo. "Well, I don't know if I can say for certain yet. Many species have different abilities, and what it comes down to is their intentions."

"Could I see you in your office, please, Doctor?"

"Certainly, Captain." The hologram followed Captain Janeway into his soundproof office.

Tuvok and Seven remained in Sickbay, though far enough away from Bo and Lauren to give them the illusion of privacy.

"At least this time I'm wearing underwear," Bo murmured to Lauren.

"I'd like to get my hands on that medical device he was scanning you with," Lauren said. "I had to draw blood and run assays to measure your platelet count, and had to perform high-performance liquid chromatography to discover the pyruvate. He could tell all of that within just ten seconds."

"I do love it when you speak geek, Doctor Lewis." Bo looked at her through lidded eyes.

Lauren paused and looked at Bo. Sure enough, she detected the telltale signs of an aroused succubus.

"How are you feeling, Bo?" she asked.

"Hungry," Bo said. She shook her head as if to clear it. "I fed off the chi of about a thousand Revenants before we went into the portal, so I don't know why."

"I'm sure the trip took a lot out of you," Lauren said. "Plus, you were keeping me safe. But I think you need to feed soon."

"Right - but how?"

Lauren looked through the window of the Doctor's office, where it looked like the captain and the Doctor were finishing their _tete-a-tete_.

"Maybe we're almost done here, and then we can find some privacy," she said.

"Maybe," Bo said, though she frowned. She didn't like to feed from Lauren strictly for sustenance, though if there were no other alternative, she would do it.

The captain and the Doctor returned.

"Thank you for allowing my doctor to examine you," Janeway began, though she was quickly interrupted.

"Captain," Seven said. "I propose a test."

Janeway looked exasperated at the interruption. "What?"

"These women have made claims that are unlikely. Plainly put, their story defies belief. To what end? It is possible that they are hiding more sinister purpose, and are trying to distract us with fantastical claims. If this is the case, then allowing Bo and Lauren free range on Voyager could pose a grave danger."

"Right, the two of us deliberately came here with no weapons or knowledge about spaceships specifically to lull you into a false sense of security," Bo said. "Then we'll spring our trap."

Seven turned to her. "It is not personal. It is my duty to provide the captain with counsel about possible threats to the ship."

Janeway looked at Tuvok. She thought Seven was being a little alarmist, and definitely undiplomatic, but she wasn't willing to tolerate any unnecessary risk to her crew or her ship. Tuvok was the head of security aboard Voyager, and she decided to punt to him.

"Mr. Tuvok? What do you think?"

Tuvok cocked his head and looked at the captain. "What Seven of Nine articulates is possible. I do not believe that it is probable - but it is possible. Logic dictates that we should pay heed to Seven's concern."

Janeway crossed her arms. "Fine, Seven. What's the test?"

"Bo," Seven said. "You claim you have the ability to consume chi directly from the mouths of living beings. I am a living being. Consume my chi."

Bo looked taken aback. "I'm not sure that's a good idea."

"Because you cannot do it?"

"No," Bo said. "Because...it can be alarming for people."

"I am Borg," Seven informed her. "I do not alarm easily."

Bo looked at the captain. "Is this all right with you?"

"It won't hurt her?"

"It might make her feel a little woozy," Lauren said. "But there's no permanent damage."

"Then go ahead," Janeway said.

Bo wanted to argue some more, but her hunger was insistent, and she wasn't even sure that feeding from Lauren as much as she dared when they were in private would be enough. She stood up from the biobed and approached Seven.

Seven was taller than Bo, so Bo titled her head up and put her left hand on the back of Seven's neck, bringing her mouth closer. She didn't touch Seven's lips with hers - she had progressed in her abilities enough not to need actual physical contact with another person to draw out their chi - but proximity helped. With a slight inhalation, she found the thread of Seven's chi and began to draw it into her own body.

Janeway shifted her weight from foot to foot as she watched Bo join with Seven in what looked like an intimate, open-mouthed kiss. She frowned as she saw a thin ribbon of smoky blue light emerge from Seven's mouth and enter Bo's. Bo's eyes opened and Janeway felt startled as she saw that the women's formerly brown eyes were now glowing a brilliant blue.

Bo kept the contact for a few more seconds, and then closed her mouth, pushing Seven's shoulder gently. The Borg opened her eyes and stumbled backwards, almost falling down.

"Seven!" the captain said, rushing to her side and putting her arm around the Borg's waist. "Are you all right?" She turned toward Lauren. "You said this wouldn't hurt her."

"I am functional, Captain," Seven said. "Just...dizzy."

The Doctor quickly scanned Seven with his medical probe. "Your ATP stores have been cut in half," he said. "Granted, you have six times as much ATP as a human at your baseline, but I'm sure it was a shock to your system."

"My nanoprobes will restore the balance shortly," Seven said. "Though...perhaps I should regenerate."

"I'll walk you down to the cargo bay," Janeway said, not relinquishing her hold on Seven's waist. "Tuvok - please escort our guests to the guest quarters. And Bo," she said.

Bo looked up.

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do that again to any of my crew for the time being," she said. "Until we understand more about how it works."

"No problem."

Janeway led Seven out of Sickbay and the doors closed behind them.

"Well, that was exciting!" the Doctor said, beaming at Bo and Lauren. "Never a dull moment in scientific research!"


	4. Stimulation

Bo and Lauren followed Tuvok down the corridor. Though they walked slightly behind him, Bo thought he probably was aware of their location at all times, and not just from his peripheral vision. He exuded vigilance.

"Guest quarters on Voyager are at a premium," the Vulcan said. "We don't have adjacent cabins for you, though the two currently vacant quarters are on the same deck."

"We prefer to stay together," Bo replied.

"Very well," Tuvok said.. He came to a stop in front of some doors, which whisked quietly open.

"After you," he said.

Bo and Lauren entered the cabin and looked around. It was dim, and they squinted.

"Where's the light switch?" Bo asked, looking at the wall.

"Lights," Tuvok said, following them in. The lights came on, illuminating the room, and the doors closed behind him.

To Lauren and Bo's eyes, the room seemed remarkably austere, without even the touches that a hotel tried to include to help guests feel like they were in a real home. The walls, the furniture, the bed were all in various shades of grey. Lauren's gaze was drawn to the machines on one side of the wall.

"What's this?" she asked, walking over and looking at the controls with interest.

"That is a replicator," Tuvok answered. "It can create food, beverages and items from component molecules. The patterns are all stored here." He indicated the menu controls.

"Like a 3-D printer!" Lauren marvelled.

"Beats the hell out of room service," Bo said.

"Indeed," Tuvok said. "However, on Voyager, resources are limited, so the crew and our guests generally eat in the mess hall. Our cook uses raw materials to create meals that are usually edible."

"That's quite a recommendation. How do we get to the mess hall?"

Tuvok picked up a PADD from the desk nearby and touched a few buttons. "This is a general map of Voyager. To travel between decks, enter the turbolifts here or here, and speak the number of the deck you wish to reach. The mess hall is on Deck 2, Section 13, and food is available at most times of the day." He handed the PADD to Lauren.

"Thank you," Lauren said.

"One additional thing. The captain would like you both to wear these communicator badges while you are on board." He handed them each a roughly triangular object that felt to Lauren like smooth, slightly slippery metal.

"They will adhere to your clothing and will allow you to communicate with others. To contact a crew member, simply touch the badge and say the name of the crew member you need to reach."

Bo asked "Does that mean that people will be able to hear us? All the time?"

"Only if you activate the communicator and speak their names," Tuvok said. "Otherwise, they will not. I must resume my duties."

"One thing. How do we get out?" Bo said, looking at the door.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "Simply approach the doors and they will open. You are not prisoners.."

Lauren nodded.

"Do not hesitate to contact me with any questions," Tuvok said, and left the room.

Bo watched him go. "I'll bet you these things will let them track us, too," she said, tossing her communicator badge onto the desk.

Lauren shrugged, and held her badge close to the lapel of her jacket, where it adhered immediately through no mechanism she could detect.

"Maybe, but I'm betting with the technology on this ship, they could track us anyway."

"Probably." Bo put her arms around Lauren's waist, looking at the badge.

"You know what's strange," Lauren said.

"What?"

"We've time traveled about three and a half centuries into the future, and we're apparently 70 light-years from Earth. We might not even be in the same universe that we started in. I feel like I should be feeling more freaked out."

"All of those things are true," Bo said, burying her hands in Lauren's hair. "But we're together, for one thing. I always feel better when I'm with you."

Lauren kissed the tip of Bo's nose. "So do I."

"Also," Bo said, lightly caressing the back of Lauren's neck, "We've faced the Garuda together, and the Lich, and a bunch of other terrible things. Compared to all of that, this place is pretty nice. Kind of boring decor, but it seems safe. And there are all these smart people here who seem like they know what they're doing, and they can probably get us back home in no time."

"You always know the right thing to say to make me feel better," Lauren said.

Bo laughed. "That's absolutely not true. Usually I always say the wrong thing and then have to explain why I didn't mean it that way and apologize."

"Well, I always know that your heart is in the right place," Lauren smirked as she poked Bo's sternum, where her necklace was nestled.

"Speaking of my heart, Doctor, do you want to continue your study of my physiology? Shall we see if that bed is as uncomfortable as it looks?"

Lauren smiled. "I thought you just fed from Seven?"

"I did. This is just me, thinking about how sexy you look right now. Besides, we've never done it in outer space." Bo gently nipped Lauren's neck with her teeth.

Lauren shivered. "Good point And those mini quiches were a long time ago."

Bo laughed, leading Lauren toward the bed. "Did you catch the sexual tension between Seven and the captain?"

"What?"

"Oh, definitely. The captain's aura was at least an eight."

"Really? What about Seven?"

Bo paused from unbuttoning Lauren's shirt. "She was lower on the scale, but there was definitely something there. Especially after I fed from her."

"Maybe she had never considered it before. Being fed on by a succubus does tend to stimulate the senses."

"Mmmm," Bo said, pushing Lauren's shirt off her shoulders and reclining back on the bed. "Get over here and stimulate _my_ senses."

* * *

Janeway sighed and rubbed her temples as she leaned back in her chair. After she had seen Seven down to the cargo bay and had ensured that the Borg was safely regenerating in her alcove, she had come to her ready room to try to make sense of the strange women's presence on Voyager. Adjacent to the bridge, the captain's ready room was her sanctum, a place where she could noodle over a problem and sometimes make a breakthrough.

But she was reluctantly concluding that she probably should have gone to bed, instead. Lack of sleep was negatively impacting her ability to focus, and even the captain's famous reserves of strength were flagging in the absence of any immediate crisis.

Just as she was about to lay her head down on the desk for a catnap, the door chime sounded.

"Come," she said.

Tuvok entered. "Captain. I have put Bo and Lauren in guest quarters."

Janeway nodded. "Which ones?"

"They opted to share a cabin. Deck three."

"Fine. I'll be able to keep an eye on them." Janeway sighed. "Tuvok, what do you think of their story?"

"It seems implausible, Captain," the Vulcan replied. "But no more illogical than thinking that this is an elaborate ruse. Bo did somehow deplete Seven's stores of ATP with no technological assistance. As well, they did not appear to have any knowledge of how a starship functions, so it is possible that, as they say, they have traveled both in space and in time. And possibly, from a parallel universe."

"Because whatever Bo's special abilities are, they don't exist in our world."

"Precisely."

"If all this is true, then we'll have to find a way to help them to get back," Janeway said. "Though the Earth they'll be returning to is not our Earth, which doesn't help us much. That's not a reason to not help them, but...damn."

"And if we cannot find a way?"

"We'll have to," Janeway said grimly. "Out here in the Delta Quadrant, we need a being that feeds off sexual energy aboard Voyager like we need a hole in our head."

Tuvok inclined an eyebrow. "Indeed."

"There's also the Temporal Prime Directive to consider. If their story is true, then we are obligated to return them to their own timeline to avoid changing history."

"Captain, even if we were able to return them right now without further delay, it is possible that their universe's course of history would still be altered. They have seen a great deal of our technology already. Knowing that a thing is possible by seeing it in the future can artificially hasten its discovery in the present."

"Like Montgomery Scott and the transparent aluminum in the 20th century to save those humpback whales, I know," said Janeway. "But I'm more concerned with our crew, frankly. Time travel, possible supernatural powers - I don't want to have to explain any of this to anybody." She rubbed at her temples. "We need a cover story for them."

"Captain?"

"Just for the time being, Tuvok. If I can avoid telling the crew that we have a succubus on board, and then having to explain what a succubus is, so much the better."

Janeway looked out the window, thinking, and decided on a plan, which she explained to Tuvok. He listened with his characteristic impassivity.

"Brief them, please. And inform Seven and the Doctor, as well."

"Aye, Captain," said Tuvok.


	5. Leola Root

"Bounty hunters?" Bo said to Lauren, rolling her eyes. "Really? Who's going to believe that?"

The cabin doors had just swished closed again after the Vulcan had left, once he had imparted the cover story to the two women. If he had any idea of what he had interrupted, he gave no sign. Bo was used to donning her clothes lightning-quick anyway, and by the time Lauren had finished rebuttoning her top, there was only a slightly longer-than-usual pause between their hearing the door chime and saying "Come in!"

"I think it's a good idea," Lauren said. "At least, it seems easier than explaining the truth. I don't think this universe has Fae in it."

"But how are we supposed to be able to pass for bounty hunters? We don't know anything about this place."

"I think that's the point, Bo. Real bounty hunters probably wouldn't discuss what they do with people who aren't their clients. Especially with a crew like this, which seems pretty buttoned up. The less we say, the better. And besides," Lauren said with a wry grin at Bo, "it might be fun."

"Fun?"

"You know...just you and me, a couple of dangerous characters," Lauren said, moving closer to Bo on the couch. "Living life together, nobody in charge of us but us…" She kissed Bo's neck just under her right ear.

"I like the idea of you being in charge of me," Bo said, leaning her head back.

Lauren's stomach let out a loud growl.

Bo gave her a rueful look. "Though right now, I think it's your stomach that's in charge."

Lauren laughed. "I am pretty hungry."

Bo stood up and held out her hand. "Come on. Let's find this mess hall and get some food into you."

* * *

"Deck two."

The turbolift took off without a jolt, though Lauren and Bo instinctively reached out their arms to the walls as they would have on an elevator.

"Wow, that's a smooth ride," Lauren said.

"Why does everything you say sound so suggestive?" Bo asked, laughing.

"That's just where my mind is lately. Probably because we were interrupted. Human women have needs too," Lauren replied.

"I'll make it up to you later," Bo said, leaning over and kissing Lauren just as the turbolift came to a stop and the doors opened.

"Uh, hello!" said a startled voice.

Bo broke off the kiss and smiled. "Hi," she said, extending a hand. "I'm Bo."

"Harry Kim," the man replied, taking her hand, flushing red. "Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Lauren," Lauren said, smiling demurely. "We're new here - just on our way to the mess hall."

"You must be the two travelers we picked up from the wormhole. I'd be happy to show you the way," Harry said, regaining his composure. He led Bo and Lauren down the corridor and stopped in front of the mess hall entrance.

"Here we are. I'll introduce you to Neelix. One word of advice - avoid the leola root stew," Harry murmured.

"The what root?" Bo asked.

"Neelix! These are the guests we picked up from the wormhole."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" beamed the short Talaxian, hurrying over to the doorway. "The Captain let me know I might be seeing you soon. Welcome to Voyager, Bo and Lauren. I'm Neelix - the ship's cook and Chief Morale Officer."

"I've got to get back to the bridge," Harry said. "But you're in good hands with Neelix. Let me know if there's anything I can help you with while you're on board." He waved goodbye and strode back toward the turbolift.

Lauren was fascinated. She had studied plenty of rare Fae in her day, but had never seen a true alien species. Neelix's skin was ridged and he had reddish-yellow spotting on his head. There was a plume of hair that grew mohawk-style along the center of his head, though it seemed more like the natural pattern rather than an affectation.

Lauren's scientific mind immediately began to catalogue his stocky anatomy and extrapolate what kind of musculoskeletal structure underlied the…

"Ow!" she said, quickly covering the exclamation with a cough. Bo had elbowed her in the side, none too gently, and she realized that she had been staring, and that both Neelix and Bo were waiting for her to introduce herself. She smiled weakly.

"Sorry," Lauren said. "I haven't eaten in almost a day, and I think my blood sugar is practically zero."

"Well, we can fix that right away," Neelix said. "It just so happens that I made a fresh batch of stew this morning. I'll get you some." The Talaxian went behind the counter and busied himself with a ladle and some bowls.

"Neelix, you aren't trying to feed our guests leola root stew, are you? And this is their first day on board. Are you trying to make them to leave?"

"Very funny, Tom," came the reply.

Bo looked over at the new voice. It was a tall, sandy-haired man with clear blue eyes and a boyish face. He gave her and Lauren a charming smile.

"Neelix's leola root stew is legend on Voyager," he said. "But not the good kind of legend. Tom Paris. Welcome to Voyager, Bo and Lauren!"

"Word really gets around," Lauren said.

"The only thing faster than warp ten on a starship is news," said a woman who walked up next to Tom. "Besides, it was in our senior staff briefing," she said, gesturing with a PADD she held in her hand. "I'm B'Elanna Torres, the Chief Engineer. Would you two like to join us?"

Lauren made sure not to stare at the woman's bony ridged forehead.

"That sounds great. Thank you."

"Lunch is served!" said Neelix, approaching with a tray that contained four steaming bowls.

Tom took his bowl with good grace.

"Neelix, what is leola root, anyway?" Lauren asked.

"Oh, it's wonderful," Neelix said. "It's native to the Delta Quadrant, like me. None of the crew on Voyager had ever had it before coming here."

"And most of us wish it had stayed that way," Tom said in an aside.

"It's rich in vitamins and minerals," Neelix said, ignoring Tom. "Kilogram for kilogram, it's more nutrient-rich than any other foodstuff you'll find around here. Many travelers on interstellar journeys have subsisted solely on leola root for months at a time and actually ended up healthier than when they began. It preserves well, you see."

"That's because it's covered in mildew," B'Elanna said.

"Which is an excellent preservative. Anyway, I hope you find your stay here to be enjoyable, Bo and Lauren. You two let me know if you need anything at all while you're aboard," Neelix said.

Bo nodded. "Thank you very much, Neelix."

"So!" Tom said, once they were all settled in. "You two are bounty hunters?"

Lauren choked on her first bite of stew and coughed. "Wow, that's some strong spice."

"Talaxians have a different sense of taste than humans," B'Elanna said. "We've convinced him to moderate the spices, though most of the humans aboard find it too strong."

"And you don't?"

"The Klingon palate is a little more used to strong flavors," B'Elanna said with a wolfish grin.

"Right," said Tom. "But seriously. How do two humans end up bounty hunting in the Delta Quadrant? How do two humans end up out here at all? Most of the other humans we've run across have been few and far between, and most of them were sent here by the Caretaker, like we were."

Bo gave him a demure smile. "We don't really like to talk about our work."

"All right. Fair enough," Tom said. "So how do you like Voyager?"

"It's very nice," Lauren replied. "I'd love to spend more time in your sickbay to learn from your doctor."

"I'm sure he'd love that," Tom said. "The Doctor never passes up a chance to talk about his work. Or anything else."

"What's his name?" Bo asked. "We didn't catch it earlier."

"The Doctor."

"He doesn't have a name?"

"He's a hologram," B'Elanna said. "The Emergency Medical Hologram. Our ship's doctor was killed when the Caretaker sent us here, and the Doctor has been left active for so long he's become sentient."

"I wouldn't have known," Lauren said.

"I'm guessing this your first time on a Starfleet vessel," B'Elanna said. "The EMH is standard on all recent Federation starships, and they all look alike. Their creator designed them all to look like him."

"A narcissist?" Bo said. "We know some people like that."

"If this is your first time on a Starfleet ship, you should definitely make sure to check out the holodeck," Tom said. "Feel free to use any of my programs. It's on deck six."

"Thank you," Lauren said.

"Tom's programs are all role-playing fantasy games or muscle cars," B'Elanna said.

"Muscle cars?" Bo perked up.

"Yeah. You like gasoline cars?"

"They're kind of a hobby of mine," Bo said.

"Fixing them?"

"Driving them."

"Not to mention washing them," Lauren murmured.

"Are you finished?" Bo asked.

"I didn't say anything."

"With your lunch." Bo indicated Lauren's empty bowl.

"Oh! Yes."

"You can put your bowls over there into the recycler," Tom said, gesturing to the receptacle across the room that was located next to the replicator.

Bo carried their dishes to the recycler. She frowned at it, and then shoved the bowls in, where they immediately disappeared.

"Oh my gosh, that's cool," she said. "Better than a Brownie, even."

"What's a Brownie?" B'Elanna asked.

"Long story," Lauren said, standing up. "Thank you so much for eating with us. I think we'll go check out that holodeck."

Tom and B'Elanna smiled and waved as Bo and Lauren left the mess hall.

"I'll tell you one thing," Tom said, watching them go. "They're definitely not what they seem."

"That's for sure," B'Elanna said. "They finished all of their stew - it takes serious determination to do that the first time you're confronted with leola root."

"I heard that!" Neelix called from across the mess hall.


	6. Conference

After a nap, Janeway was feeling much refreshed, and she wasted no time in calling a meeting of her senior staff in the conference room. Seven, Tuvok and the Doctor already knew the full story about Bo and Lauren, and she quickly brought Chakotay, Harry, B'Elanna, Tom and Neelix up to speed.

"That explains a lot," Tom said.

"What do you mean?" Janeway asked.

"B'Elanna and I ran into them in the mess hall. I asked them a few questions about being bounty hunters and how two humans came to be way out here in the Delta Quadrant, but they said they didn't want to talk about it."

"Good," Janeway said. "At least they're sticking to their cover story."

"How much do we know about how Bo's healing abilities work, anyway?" Chakotay asked.

The Doctor spoke up. "I've only had time to examine her once, with the able assistance of Seven as the test subject," he said, nodding toward the Borg, "but from the data I've been able to collect so far, her body seems to have the ability to heal itself almost instantaneously by siphoning off ATP from another humanoid and then channeling that energy into rapid platelet production and tissue synthesis. It's quite fascinating, really…"

"I thought you said that she fed off sexual energy?" Chakotay cut off the Doctor, and coughed. "What was that experiment like?"

"That's what Dr. Lewis told me when she was talking about the taxonomy of the species, but Bo also appears to have the ability to consume energy directly without the necessity of sexual activity. Frankly, I'd like to study those mechandisms more, although I need to spend some time thinking about how to set up the necessary working conditions and controls, not to mention the ethical implications involved…"

"Captain, are you sure it's safe to have a being that can drain energy from other crew members roaming free around Voyager?" Chakotay interrupted what looked to be a long digression from the doctor.

"I appreciate the concern, Commander, and it's a question I've asked myself. So far I haven't seen any indication that Bo is at all predatory or unstable. I prefer to treat her and Lauren like guests until they give me a reason not to," Janeway said.

Chakotay nodded. He knew how the captain operated with new people, but as the First Officer, he served as a devil's advocate at times.

"It might not be a problem anyway," Harry said.

"What do you mean, Mr. Kim?"

"Well," Harry cleared his throat. "I think Bo and Lauren are involved. With each other."

"Oh?" Janeway said dryly. Part of her enjoyed seeing Harry Kim squirm in discomfort. "And how did you come by that piece of information?"

"They were kissing in the turbolift, Captain," he said. He blushed, but kept a straight face.

"Really?" B'Elanna perked up. "I thought they seemed awfully close when we had lunch with them."

"So did I," said Tom. "And Bo didn't even give me a second glance when we met. Not that I wanted her to," he added hastily as his Klingon wife shot a glare in his direction.

"I think they make a very attractive couple," Neelix chimed in.

"People, let's focus," Janeway said. "The purpose of this meeting, believe it or not, is not to discuss the romantic life of our guests. It's to figure out how to help them get home. Seven, would you share with us the summary you prepared about the wormhole, and what we've been able to figure out?"

Seven stood and led the senior staff through the briefing about the wormhole.

"As our measurements show," she concluded, "the wormhole is still oscillating and changing its orientation, still not on any predictable timeline. This implies that whatever Voyager did to create a connection between our world and Bo and Lauren's Earth, it was transient and did not change the fundamental nature of the anomaly. Our task now is to define how we induced the temporary transmittive state of the wormhole and seek to recreate it - but in reverse."

"Thank you, Seven. Harry, why don't you tell us what you've been working on."

Seven sat, and Harry Kim stood up.

"We're still not totally sure how our phaser activity created a connection between the wormhole and Bo and Lauren's universe. In fact, from what they told Seven, Tuvok and the captain, it seems like there was some activity on their end too."

"What kind of activity?" B'Elanna asked.

Harry pursed his lips. "Uh…"

Seven spoke up. "Bo said that her father, who appears to be some kind of a deity in horse form, was trying to escape Hell and that he tricked her into opening a portal from the underworld to their Earth. It was this portal that Bo and Lauren entered."

The room was silent for a moment.

"So it's going to be difficult to recreate those conditions on the other end," Harry finally said. "But luckily, we have sensor logs from the wormhole event. Seven and I finished combing through them and we've detected an unusually high level of tachyon particles that appeared just before Bo and Lauren came through. If we can generate a similar level of tachyons and apply them in reverse, along with repeating our phaser fire through dilithium prisms, the models show that we should be able to induce a second transmittive state in the wormhole."

"What guarantee do we have that Bo and Lauren will go back to their own time and location?" Chakotay asked.

"We don't," Janeway said. "Usually wormholes have a fixed entry and exit point, but it's possible this one exists in multiple universes. It's a risk we'll need to make sure they're aware of, but I don't see any other way around it."

"Bo and Lauren arrived here without a ship, or with any protective gear," Chakotay asked. "How did they survive being surrounded by tachyon particles and phaser beams? They would have been torn apart."

The Doctor spoke up. "I've been researching that," he said. "Bo appears to have superhuman healing abilities. Theoretically, as long as she has enough of what she calls 'chi' - which I suspect consists primarily of ATP and other energy sources - she could continuously heal herself. She also seems to be able to transfer chi to another person. She and Lauren stated that before they entered the portal in their world, Bo had drained a cavern full of beings of their chi. I suspect she involuntarily used most of this reserve keeping herself and Lauren alive during the 3.5 seconds they were exposed to the phaser fire and tachyons."

"That's another consideration, then," the captain said. "Before we try to send them back - if they want to take the risk - we'll need to make sure Bo is topped off."

"How?"

"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it," Janeway said. "Right now, I'm more concerned about how we can generate enough tachyon particles. B'Elanna?"

"Voyager doesn't have enough capacity to create a sustained burst of tachyons for that long, Captain," the chief engineer replied. "Definitely not while we're also diverting all power to the phasers."

"So we'll have to find another source."

The room was silent again.

Finally the captain spoke. "Since none of us wants to say it, I will. We'll need to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg vessel."

"That's not all, Captain," Harry Kim said. "Making the prisms took nearly all of our reserve dilithium. We gathered what we could after the explosion and we can recrystallize it, but the torpedos vaporized more than half of it. We're going to need to find more dilithium."

The captain nodded. "That's what we'll do first. Start scanning for planets that are likely to have substantial dilithium deposits, and then we'll tackle the Borg."

"Dismissed."


	7. Holodeck

Lauren touched the keypad outside the holodeck and the octagonal doors opened. She and Bo entered slowly, looking around the severe space.

The room was large with a high ceiling, reminding Lauren of a modern living room with a cathedral ceiling. The floor, walls and ceiling were uniformly dark, crisscrossed by yellow gridlines that formed geometric patterns, inlaid with long columns of what looked like spotlights. It was quiet and still.

"Hello Cleveland!" Bo shouted. The room seemed to absorb the sound, and no echoes came back.

Lauren looked around for a keypad or controller, but there were none to be found.

She consulted the PADD that Tom Paris had given her and cleared her throat.

"Computer. Run Paris 11."

Suddenly the room changed around them, making Lauren's head spin. They were inside a small spaceship. She was clad in a leather jacket, tight pants and wore a pair of old-fashioned goggles. She looked at Bo, who was similarly attired.

"Which one is this?"

Lauren glanced again at the PADD. "The Adventures of Captain Proton. I'm a ship's captain, saving the galaxy from bad guys. You're Buster Kincaid - my first mate."

"I sure am," Bo said in a sultry voice.

Lauren laughed. "As fun as that would be, this feels way too much like a teenage boy's fantasy. Let's try...computer. Activate Paris 14."

The setting changed again to an auto bay with a 1970's muscle car. A red toolbox and a creeper - a flat platform on wheels to allow a mechanic to easily scoot underneath a car on her or his back - stood nearby. "Surfin' Safari" by the Beach Boys emanated from the transistor radio on a workbench.

"Cool car!" said Bo, walking around to look at the front."

"I am not going to get down on that garage floor," Lauren said. "It's filthy."

"So it's okay to do it in your lab, with human and Fae fluids and needles and chemicals everywhere, but not here?"

"I keep my lab spotless and mostly sterile," Lauren said, scrolling through the PADD. "This program is called Grease Monkey. No thanks."

"Nothing wrong with a little lubrication," Bo said, stroking the hood of the car.

"Oh, this one looks nice. Computer. Activate Paris 27."

The surroundings rearranged themselves again, and the car beneath Bo's hand changed into a pool table. The room was filled with tables set with dishes and vases holding red roses. A gleaming polished wood bar took up most of one wall.

A waiter approached Bo and Lauren, seeming unruffled by their sudden appearance.

"Welcome to Chez Sandrine's," he said in a French accent, giving them a slight bow. "Would mademoiselles care for some refreshment?"

"Yes, please," Lauren said. "Whatever wine you recommend."

"Chateau Picard, 2347," he said. "From the north end of the vineyard. It is most excellent."

 _"Merci,"_ Lauren said with a smile.

She turned to Bo, who was leaning up against the pool table, looking at the room.

"Care for a game?" Lauren asked. She picked up the wooden triangle from beneath the table, placed it on the green felt surface, and gathered up the balls, arranging them precisely. Then she used her fingertips to slowly slide the triangle up and forward from the balls, disturbing nary a one.

"Nice rack," Bo said.

Lauren smirked. "It's tight, too. Want to break?"

Bo grabbed a cue stick and chalked the tip, twirling the cue slowly and deliberately, raking her eyes over Lauren's body as she did so.

She walked over to the table and bent over, affording Lauren a generous view of her cleavage. She waggled her rear and back and forth, at the same time moving the cue stick slowly in and out of the circle she made with her fingers.

Lauren swallowed.

Bo gave her a slow, knowing smile and then stilled, fixing her gaze on the cue ball.

She grasped the stick, pulled it back, and struck the cue ball with tremendous force. It connected with the one-ball, and Lauren's carefully constructed rack exploded.

The nine went into one corner, and the four into the other.

"Nice," said Lauren. "Stripes or solids?"

"Solids." Bo missed the next shot.

Lauren chalked her own cue stick awkwardly.

"It's been a while," she said, giving the table a dubious look. "Want to give me some pointers?" She bent over the table, studying the cue ball with focused concentration, but also looked back over her shoulder at Bo with an inviting expression.

It was Bo's turn to swallow, and she unconsciously licked her lips. She walked up behind Lauren and molded her body to the other woman's, covering both of Lauren's hands with her own.

"The first thing is to check out all the possible angles. Which ball has a clear path to the pocket? For example," she said, letting go of Lauren's left hand to tuck the blonde's hair behind her left ear, "look at the six. It's closest to the middle pocket."

"Right," Lauren said. "So do I hit it hard and fast?" She moved her hips backward slightly l again the succubus', and smiled when she heard Bo's breathing speed up.

"Noooo," Bo said, returning the pressure, pinning Lauren's hips against the edge of the table. "When you're trying to sink a ball in the side pocket, you need to be..." Another thrust. "...very slow..." Another. "...and gentle, because the angle of entry is not as wide as the corners." She punctuated that statement by shifting slightly to nudge one of her legs in between Lauren's.

She guided the cue stick in between Lauren's fingers, settling the heel of Lauren's hand on the green felt surface, caressing the digits with her own. With her other hand, she covered Lauren's on the end of the stick, and began to move the stick back and forth, timing it with matching, subtle thrusts of her leg.

"It's best to get down to eye level with the ball so you can make sure the angle is right," Bo said, removing her left hand from the table and, sliding her hand underneath Lauren's shirt, cupped Lauren's left breast.

Lauren closed her eyes and made an appreciative sound as Bo caressed her nipple.

"Then, once, you're sure you have it right, it's time," Bo said. She drew back the stick, and pushed it forward to gently strike the cue ball, which rolled softly toward the six. At the moment the cue ball struck the six, she pressed her thigh firmly into Lauren and gently squeezed her nipple.

The six ball fell neatly into the corner pocket.

"Thanks for the help," Lauren said, dropping the cue stick and turning around. She captured Bo's lips in a full kiss and sat on the edge of the pool table, pulling Bo toward her ,wrapping her legs around the succubus' waist.

"Your wine, mademoiselles," said the waiter, appearing to Bo's left with a tray adorned with two wine glasses and a carafe.

"Go away," said Lauren. The waiter withdrew.

Bo unbuttoned the top button of Lauren's shirt, and transferred her lips to the hollow of Lauren's throat. "You were an excellent pupil," she said, running the tip of her tongue from Lauren's clavicle up the side of her neck, ending at the earlobe, which she nipped.

Lauren closed her eyes and leaned back, placing her hands palms on the table to brace herself. Bo traced her tongue back down Lauren's neck, going as far down as Lauren's half-buttoned shirt would allow. Bo reached for the offending buttons.

The doors of the holodeck whisked open.

"Who knows, Seven, maybe today is your day to beat me, though I doubt it. Did someone leave the Sandrine's program running again?"

Lauren's eyes opened at the sounds of the captain's voice, and she put her hands on the sides of Bo's face, who, deep in Lauren's cleavage, hadn't noticed the interruption.

"Bo. We've got company."

The succubus reluctantly opened her eyes and stood up with a grumpy expression.

"So?" she said with a trace of petulance.

"I don't want an audience," Lauren said, buttoning her shirt.

"You're modest, I know," Bo said with a sigh.

"It's not that. I just don't want to rupture their eardrums with the sounds I'm going to make," Lauren said.

Bo looked marginally more cheerful at this.

"Hello," the captain said, finally spotting them from across the room. "I didn't realize anyone was in here."

The captain was dressed in black pants and a red tunic, while the Borg wore a black biosuit. "Seven and I were about to play our weekly Velocity match."

"We have the holodeck reserved. You are intruding," the Borg informed Bo and Lauren.

"Seven! It's fine," Janeway said with a wave of her hand. "We want you to feel at home on Voyager. Do you want to finish your game?"

"We were almost finished," Lauren said, picking up her cue stick. "This won't take long." She sized up the table for a moment, and then briskly proceeded to sink all the striped balls in rapid succession.

"Side pocket," she said, and gently tapped the cue ball. It grazed the eight ball, which rolled obediently into the side pocket.

Bo looked nonplused.

"Impressive," Seven said. "Perhaps you could give the captain some pointers. She inevitably scratches on the eight-ball."

"Bo taught me everything I know about pool," Lauren said. "She's a great teacher. Very hands-on."

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks," Janeway said. "Anyway, Seven's just trying to distract me from Velocity, because she has yet to win against me."

"We'll get out of your way," Bo said, taking Lauren's hand.

"Actually, why don't you join us?" the captain said. "We'll teach you a 24th century game. We can play doubles."


	8. Velocity

Kathryn Janeway knew she had workaholic tendencies- to put it mildly - and so had made a conscious decision several months ago to take time for herself when she could to relax, engage in physical activity, and connect with members of her crew. The benefits from doing this were obvious to the captain, and nothing short of a red alert could keep her from her weekly Velocity match with Seven.

That she had turned down lunch again this week with Chakotay after cancelling on him three other times didn't seem important.

The captain had been surprised to find their interstellar hitchhikers in the holodeck, but once she learned they had been talking to Tom Paris in the mess hall, it made sense. Of course the first thing her gregarious helmsman would do would be to encourage their visitors to explore his holoprograms. She was impressed that they had been able to figure out the holodeck, being from the 21st century, but the blonde doctor in particular seemed good with technology. It didn't matter what century a person was from - apparently genius was timeless.

Bo and Lauren had accepted the invitation to join her and Seven for a game, and after explaining the rules and showing them how the holographic phasers worked, she instructed the computer to dress Bo in a black jumpsuit similar to Seven's, and Lauren in a red tunic. It didn't seem sporting for her and Seven to be on a team together, and she appreciated the symmetry of each team having a methodical member, like Seven and Lauren, and a gut-driven seat-of-the-pants member, as she assumed Bo to be.

The rules of Velocity were simple - the competitors tried to hit their opponents' body with an eight-inch holographic disc. They used phasers to direct the disc, and also to control the disc's color. When Janeway or Lauren shot the disc with their phaser, it would turn red, and if the red disc impacted Seven or Bo - not a glancing hit, but a full impact - the red team would score a point. The game was played in the holodeck without any projection - just the black background and yellow gridlines.

As with most activities aboard a starship, Velocity served a dual purpose. Not only was it recreation and a workout for the players, but it also sharpened accuracy with a phaser, and reflexes during a fight. This was important on any starship, where days and weeks of routine work could be punctuated by unexpected violent encounters, but especially on Voyager, with the varied threats in the Delta Quadrant. Crew members were allowed to use their recreational time in the holodeck for whatever they wanted, but most crewmembers had learned to use the game to stay sharp.

"You and I are the physically stronger players," Seven informed Bo. "We should win easily."

"Velocity isn't just a game of strength, Seven. It's also a game of wits," Janeway called from across the holodeck.

"Then we're sunk," Bo said. "Lauren's a genius."

Seven shot her an annoyed look. Bo grinned back.

"No worries, though," Bo added. "I was the best at laser tag in my junior high."

"I do not understand what that means."

"Best of ten rounds, win by two," the captain said. "Start!"

A disc appeared, hanging in midair in the holodeck. Seven raised her phaser and shot the disc, which turned blue and flew toward the captain.

Janeway shot back and the disc turned red, heading for Bo. Bo pivoted away and shot the disc toward Lauren. Lauren aimed her phaser and shot, and the disc flew up into the corner of the arena, where it did a tight ricochet and sped back down toward Bo, hitting her square in the chest.

"Bullseye," Lauren said.

Seven and Bo won the next round after a lightning-fast volley where Seven's cybernetically enhanced reaction time allowed her to score a hit on the captain.

The game proceeded that way for the next six points - Janeway and Lauren would score a point, which was quickly answered by Seven and Bo. Janeway was a tenacious player - she was in excellent physical condition, and had several tricks up her sleeve. For doubles, she was well-matched with Lauren, who didn't have the quickest reflexes but had a devastating way of sending the Velocity disc into complex angles that Bo and even Seven found hard to anticipate.

Seven and Bo were a good match, too. Despite the captain's caution that Velocity wasn't just a physical game, Seven's reflexes, visual acuity and sheer strength made her a force to be reckoned with. Bo's accuracy with the phaser pistol was remarkable, and what she lacked in experience with the game she more than made up for with the chances she took that paid off more often than not.

The score was 5-4 in favor of Janeway and Lauren. Seven tensed up as the disc appeared in the middle of the arena.

Lauren shot the disc and sent it spinning toward the corner. She had used that trick one too many times, though, and Bo anticipated its angle of attack. The succubus easily dodged out of the way and sent the disc back toward the captain. Janeway shot it right back at her, and Bo scrambled out of the way, missing her shot and then ducking as the disc careened past her head and bounced off the wall.

Seeing a chance to take the advantage, both Janeway and Seven ran toward the same spot, trying to reach it first - Janeway, so she could direct the disc back toward Bo, who was still off-balance, and Seven, so she could turn the disc blue and buy her partner more time to recover.

Neither of them ended up accomplishing their goal, however, because they collided and ended up in an ungainly heap on the floor.

The disc bounced off the wall and flew back toward the captain and the Borg. The captain was trapped under Seven's greater body mass that was made heavier by her internal and external implants, and Seven appeared to be stunned by the collision.

The disc struck Seven square in the back.

"Point," said the holographic voice that kept score. "Captain Janeway and partner win."

"The great laser tag champion of Grimley Junior High finally tastes defeat!" Lauren teased.

"That was total bad luck," Bo said, smiling. "Are you okay, Seven?"

"I am undamaged," the Borg said, finally managing to extract herself from on top of the captain, though she looked shaken.

"Oof," said Janeway. "I wish I could say that same."

"Are you injured, Captain?"

Janeway waved away Seven's concerned hand. "Just getting a little too old to play Velocity as if I'm in my twenties," she said. "Nothing a hot shower won't fix."

"Thank you for teaching us how to play," Lauren said. "It was really fun."

"Likewise," Janeway replied.

Seven still looked concerned. "Captain, I think you should stop by Sickbay on your way back to your quarters."

"Quit hovering, Seven - I'll be fine, really."

Bo waved to the Captain and Seven as they exited the holodeck.

"I think we should help them, Lauren."

"Help them do what?"

"Help them to find each other. If we leave them to their own devices and it takes them seventy years to get home, I'll bet the Captain still won't have mustered up the courage to tell Seven how she feels. And I don't think Seven will be the one to make the first move, if she's even aware of what she's feeling."

"Bo, I love how you want to help everyone you meet. But we're trapped out here in space, in a different universe from our own. And the crew of Voyager are far from their home too. Their situation is precarious. If their captain gets involved in a romantic relationship with an important member of her crew and it doesn't work out, what will that do to their chances of making it back to Earth? Wouldn't it be better to let sleeping dogs lie?"

Bo put her arms around Lauren, ignoring that they were both sweaty.

"And I love your caution and your commitment to rational thinking. But if there's one thing I've learned in the last three years, it's that keeping the people you love at arm's length for fear of what might happen is no way to live your life. Anything could happen - just look at us. Pyrippus, Druids, Death Trains…"

"...really boring boyfriends…" Lauren murmured under her breath.

"...other universes, spaceships," Bo continued, ignoring that. "I don't think I would have been able to cope with all of that if I hadn't known that you were there, and that you loved me no matter what. Thank you for being so patient. I'm sorry it took me so long to come around."

Lauren smiled and blinked back tears. She chose not to reply, but instead kissed Bo. The kiss gradually deepened until Bo broke it, breathing heavily.

"How about we take this back to our cabin? I don't want to risk someone walking in and interrupting us again."

Lauren grasped Bo's hand and they exited the holodeck, which was a good thing - Harry Kim and a friend were dressed in Velocity gear and about to enter. Harry greeted them, immediately blushing a deep red.


	9. Interruptions

"That shower is weird," Bo said, following Lauren from the ensuite bathroom into their cabin.

"It's powered by sonic vibrations," Lauren said. "It makes the dirt and grease vibrate right off your body and hair, and won't dry your skin because you aren't using soap or hot water. It's pretty ingenious, actually. You don't need lotion afterward, and it's very fast. Efficient."

"You're starting to sound like Seven of Nine," Bo said. "What about how nice a hot shower feels, and how relaxing it is? Also, it makes showering together not nearly as much fun when I can't soap you up."

"Well, that is a good point," Lauren said. "But on the other hand, we're clean in record time, and we're all alone now. We don't have any responsibilities. No one is expecting us anywhere. We have hours and hours to do whatever…"

She kissed Bo's neck.

"...we…"

She drew her tongue up the curve of Bo's ear.

"...want."

Bo shivered.

"And I intend to take my time to finish what you started in Chez Sandrine's," Lauren murmured into Bo's ear, trailing her fingertips down the succubus' spine.

At that moment, there was a beep and a voice popped up from the comm badge sitting on the side table.

" _The Doctor to Dr. Lauren Lewis."_

"Ow!" Bo said as Lauren's fingernails unexpectedly dug into her buttocks.

"Sorry," Lauren said. "That startled me."

"Doesn't that thing have a 'do not disturb' setting?" Bo said, casting an annoyed glance at the table.

"This isn't a hotel," Lauren said, crossing to the table. "I suppose they have emergencies and the crew needs to be available." She tapped the badge.

"What a pain in the ass," Bo said.

" _Pardon?"_ said the Doctor's voice from the badge.

"Sorry, Doctor," Lauren said. "I'm here. What's up?"

" _I've been doing some additional analysis on my scans of Bo's blood, and I'm starting to form a hypothesis. I'd like to discuss my findings with you. Could you come to Sickbay?"_

"Now?" Lauren said.

" _There's no time like the present - I have some routine appointments later today, but right now my schedule is free."_

"I'll be right there," Lauren said, tapping the badge again.

"Bo, I'm sorry," she said, planting an apologetic kiss on the other woman's cheek, pulling on her clothes.

"No, it's okay," Bo said. "You should totally go geek out. How often do you get to work in a 24th century lab?"

"Do you want to come?"

"Yes, but I think the Doctor's expecting you in Sickbay," Bo deadpanned. "Go ahead - I'll wander around the ship. Maybe I'll go see if Neelix has any Talaxian version of chocolate."

"To be continued," Lauren said, grabbing her comm badge and affixing it to her shirt. She paused to give Bo a deep kiss. "I'll let you know what the Doctor's been able to figure out."

"Mmmmm," Bo said. "You can fill me in later."

"That, too," Lauren said with a grin, and walked out of the cabin.

* * *

The chime sounded in Captain Janeway's ready room.

"Come," she said, looking up from the PADD she had been studying.

Seven of Nine entered and stood in front of her desk with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Hello, Seven. Do you want to sit down?" the captain asked, rubbing her neck.

"No. Captain, our scans in astrometrics have found a planet three parsecs away that contains large levels of naturally occurring dilithium. It will require a minor deviation from our current course."

"Any threats in the area?"

"None," said Seven. "This area of space seems quite deserted."

"Small miracles," said the captain. "I'll tell Tom to set a course."

"I have already plotted the most efficient course and sent it to the navigation helm," Seven said. "Lieutenant Paris is waiting for your orders to change course."

"Very efficient. Thank you, Seven." The captain tapped the PADD to send her orders to the helm, laid it on the desk and stood up.

"You are welcome, Captain." The Borg hesitated.

"Was there something else?"

"I have a question."

Seven usually didn't have a preamble to her questions - she just asked them, regardless of location or who else was present. Her hesitation and the prelude indicated to the captain that this question was of a personal nature. Seven was less comfortable with personal situations, and often took the opportunity to ask the captain about personal things when they were alone together.

"Go ahead," she said, with the more gentle tone of voice she reserved for these types of discussions.

"It is about Bo and Lauren."

The captain raised her eyebrows.

"The two of them are involved in...a personal relationship."

"Yes," said the captain.

"I find this knowledge unsettling."

"Unsettling how?"

"I am not certain."

Janeway paused. She sensed that Seven wasn't dissembling like a human-raised person might. She really didn't know why she was feeling unsettled.

Janeway had an inkling, but as soon as the idea tried to raise its hand in her mind, she sternly shoved it down . And even if she had been inclined to tell Seven, experience had taught her that people didn't always benefit from being told why they were feeling they way they were. It was usually much better if they could figure it out themselves.

She decided that the most open-ended question was the best course of action.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Yes," said Seven. "That is what I am attempting to do."

Janeway smiled a rueful smile.

"Let's sit down," she said, indicating the couch over near the bulkhead that afforded a view of the stars.

"What is it about Bo and Lauren that makes you feel unsettled?" the captain asked, after seeing that Seven was uncertain how to begin.

"I have been trying to ascertain that," Seven said. "It is not that they are a same-sex couple. I have known that same-sex attraction and behavior exists among humanoids at the rate of approximately 12.3%."

"Then what do you think it might be?"

"I believe it is possible that my exploration of Humanity has been incomplete."

"That's almost certainly true," Janeway said reassuringly. "You've been disconnected from the Collective for less than three years. There's still a great deal about being human to learn and experience."

"But I do not think I am talking about learning," Seven said. "I am talking about emotion. I feel...I feel that something is missing."

Seven looked at Janeway, who hardly dared to take a breath. She locked eyes with the Borg, and the silence stretched out. In reality, it was for three seconds, but to the Captain, it felt like hours that she had spent staring into Seven's eyes.

She opened her mouth to speak. She wasn't sure what she was going to say, but she felt that she had to say something.

"Captain, we're nearing the planet and ready to make orbit," Harry Kim's voice interjected over the comm.

Janeway flinched.

"Seven, I'm so sorry. We'll have to continue this another time," said the captain with regret in her tone, but the Borg was already on her feet, headed toward the bridge. Janeway followed.

Janeway settled herself into her command chair. "Report."

"It's an M-class planet. Scans show plant and animal life, but no humanoids. The dilithium deposits are located in this mountain range," Harry Kmn indicated a spot on the viewscreen. "An away team should be able to mine the dilithium we need in about an hour. Two, if we want to have a surplus."

"Janeway to Torres."

"Here, Captain."

"Assemble an away team to mine dilithium. Seven, you're with me. Mr. Chakotay, you have the conn."

The Vulcan and first officer nodded, and Seven moved toward the turbolift.

"Janeway to Bo and Lauren," said the captain as she joined Seven in the turbolift.

There was a pause of several seconds, and then a voice crackled over the comm.

"Yes?"

"How would you like to visit your first ever alien planet?"


	10. Confidences

Bo walked through the doors that led to transporter room three, and saw Lauren, the Captain, and Seven of Nine all waiting for her. An ensign in a yellow tunic stood behind a console.

"Thank you, Neelix," she said to the Talaxian, who had escorted Bo from the mess hall. With Lauren in Sickbay with the Doctor, Bo had managed to find her way to the mess hall, but had no idea how to get to the transporter room. She thought Lauren probably had most of Voyager's schematics memorized by this point.

"Where is your comm badge?" the captain asked.

"Um. Back in our cabin, I think."

"Voyager can find you via internal systems for communication purposes, but on the planet you'll need a comm badge. It also makes it easier for the transporter to find you."

"Should I go get it?"

"No, why don't you borrow Ensign Quan's?"

The ensign removed her badge and handed it to Bo, who affixed it to her shirt.

"Don't we need to wear spacesuits?" she asked.

"The planet is an M-class planet," Seven said.

"What does that mean in English?"

"That was English."

"An M-class planet is a planet that is capable of sustaining human life," Lauren interjected.

"Ah. How are we going to get there? Aren't we going to ride in a space shuttle?" Bo asked.

"Sometimes we use shuttles," the captain said. "But when possible, we use the transporter. It's faster."

"What's a transporter?"

"It's this," the captain said, gesturing to the room with five round spots on the floor. "It breaks people or things up into their component particles and reassembles them at the destination."

"Nifty," said Lauren.

"Is it safe?" Bo asked.

"Very," said the captain.

"There is always the risk of something interrupting the pattern or the particle beam," Seven interjected. "We have lost some crewmembers in the past."

Lauren blanched.

"But those were always under unusual conditions," Janeway said. "This planet is deserted and there are no ion storms in sight. If you'd prefer, we can take a shuttle, but the mining crew has already been down there for thirty minutes. We'll have about an hour to explore if we take the transporter."

"Fine," Bo said, after exchanging a glance with Lauren. "Let's go."

"Please stand on the transporter pad," Ensign Quan said. "And don't move while I'm energizing the beam. I wouldn't want to accidentally reassemble you with your feet at the end of your arms, or any other body parts in the wrong place."

Bo looked up, alarmed, but the ensign gave her a wink.

The captain suppressed a smile. "Energize," she said, after making sure everyone was in position.

The four women dissolved into a bright beam of light.

It was a disorienting experience at first, at one moment to be looking at the bulkhead of a starship and a grinning ensign, and the next to be standing in the middle of a grassy field with sunlight shining down and a cool breeze stirring her hair. Bo thought she should feel dizzy or tingly, but she felt totally normal.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "That was just like the Fae travel agent, only without the annoying bureaucracy."

"The what travel agent?" Janeway asked, looking around and consulting the tricorder in her hand. Next to her, Seven was already scanning the surrounding landscape.

"A Fae whose power is to send people anywhere on Earth instantly."

"Fascinating," said the captain. "Anywhere on Earth, through rock and magma? Her ability is different than the transporter, then."

"That is impossible," Seven said. "Conservation of energy would mean that the person's pattern would deteriorate too much in the middle of the Earth's crust to be reliably reassembled."

"Different universe, different rules," Lauren said.

"Scientific principles should remain unchanged from universe to universe," Seven replied.

"Agreed. But it's possible that some additional rules apply to the behavior of matter and energy in our world," Lauren said.

"That is...an intriguing idea," Seven said. "But what are the additional rules?"

"I've been studying different species of Fae for several years," Lauren said, "and I'm still trying to piece that together. I'm still not quite sure what the mechanism is that allows Bo to draw ATP directly from other beings, for example. I'm fairly sure it happens via the digestive system through forced osmosis, but how does her body create the conditions for the osmosis? The Doctor had some ideas, actually..."

"Are you two going to stand there and talk about science when we're on a whole other planet?" Bo interrupted, shaking her head. "Look at this place! It's a lot like Earth. Grass, trees, blue sky. Why is it so similar? I was expecting purple grass and orange blobs."

"It's due to convergent evolution. Most M-class planets develop similar flora and fauna, and the ecosystems are pretty similar too," Janeway told her. "Though each planet has unique variations, if you look closely enough."

Bo gave the captain a sidelong glance. "Is everyone in your world a scientist?"

"Not everyone," the captain said with a laugh. "But it's part of the required curriculum in Starfleet, so most of the people on Voyager have some kind of scientific background. You have to, on a starship dedicated to exploration of new worlds. Come on, let's explore."

The captain led the way down the gently rolling meadow toward a stream that ran perpendicular to their path. Across the stream, the landscape rose again toward some foothills about two miles away.

"The away team is over there, in the foothills," Janeway said. "Our scans detected a dense deposit of dilithium. They should be finished up in about an hour, so we'll walk that way to meet up with them, and them beam back to Voyager."

It was a pleasant day. The temperature was about around 70 degrees, and the light breeze continued to blow as the women forded the stream and continued up toward the foothills. Periodically Seven would stop to point out some foliage to Lauren and would explain whatever it was that set it apart from plants on Earth.

"Did you grow up on Earth?" Lauren asked her.

"No. I was born aboard a starship to parents who were scientists. At age six, I was assimilated by the Borg. It was two years ago that Captain Janeway disconnected me from the Collective."

"The Borg?" Lauren asked.

"Beings who seek perfection and value efficiency by modifying their bodies with cybernetic enhancements." Seven explained more about the Borg to Lauren, who felt equal parts fascination, horror, and compassion for the child Seven had been when she was taken.

"Do you miss it?" Lauren asked.

"At times," Seven said. "Perfection is an irresistible goal. But I find that I also enjoy exploring individuality and aspects of my humanity. It is occasionally unnerving, but overall, worthwhile."

"I can imagine. Growing up is unnerving no matter how or when you do it."

"The captain has been instructive as I have worked to adapt to being an individual," Seven added, her gaze moving momentarily to the compact woman in the red tunic who walked ahead of them beside Bo.

Lauren followed her gaze, nodding.

"I can imagine that she would be helpful," she said.

"Captain Janeway is committed to individuality. She has not given up on me - even when I have given her reasons to."

"That's like Bo," Lauren said offhandedly. "Bo is determined to live her life on her own terms. And she's never given up on me either, even when I had to make her think she should."

"Why is that?"

"Because she loves me."

Seven considered this as she and Lauren walked on in companionable silence.

Ahead, Captain Janeway and Bo were engrossed in a conversation of their own.

"I grew up on a farm in the Midwest," Janeway was saying. "My parents lived in an agricultural park in Bloomington, Indiana. They were Traditionalists, by and large."

"What's that?"

"Technology is everywhere in the 24th century," Janeway said. "Some people prefer to do things the old-fashioned way. Washing dishes by hand, using a laundry machine instead of a recycler, cooking food from ingredients instead of using a replicator."

"Wow," said Bo. "I can't imagine having access to all of those things and then not using them. My friend Kenzi and I order takeout all the time to avoid cooking."

"Part of the reason Traditionalists choose to do many things by hand is to stay connected to the earth, and the process. Sometimes the process of cooking can be just as rewarding and instructive as eating the finished product."

"Maybe it's having the ability to make the choice," Bo said. "I might feel differently if technology were everywhere in my life. And if my father wasn't trying to get me to join him in taking over the world," she added.

"I can imagine that takes up a lot of your attention," the captain said with a laugh.

"Yeah," said Bo. "And so does being a succubus."

Janeway gave her a look. "Would you actually die if you weren't able to have sex?" she asked.

"I've never tested it," Bo said, "but I think so, eventually. Not right away, but I would certainly be very cranky."

"Like most people."

"True," Bo said. "What about you? You've been out here for four years. Have you been alone all that time?"

The captain paused. She didn't usually discuss her personal life with - well, anyone. But Bo seemed uniquely qualified on the topic, and if all went according to plan, she would soon be back in her own universe. Maybe it was the nice weather, or the confidences they had already shared, but she decided to open up a bit.

"I had a fiancé back on Earth," Janeway said. "About a year ago we were able to briefly receive some communications from Starfleet. And I got a 'Dear John' letter from Mark."

"That must have been hard."

"Oh, it hurt my pride, all right," Janeway said. "But after I thought about it, I realized he was right. We had been growing apart even before Voyager got lost, and I'm very committed to Starfleet. It's not the kind of marriage he wanted. And if I'm honest, it's not the kind of marriage I wanted either."

"So since then? Has there been anybody?"

"Captains don't have relationships with crew members," Janeway said. "Starfleet regulations. Plus, out here in the Delta Quadrant, it would be a particularly bad idea. If something went wrong, the ripple effects on crew morale would be destabilizing."

"Surely you must have been tempted," Bo said.

"No," said the captain.

"Not by anyone?"

"What are you driving at?" Janeway said.

"Seven," Bo said. "She's very important to you."

"I'm responsible for her," Janeway said. "I disconnected her from the Borg. It's up to me to help her adapt to being human."

"That might be true," Bo said. "But do you really believe that's all you're feeling for her? Responsibility?"

Janeway looked at her. "I appreciate that you have good intentions, Bo. But this is not something I'm prepared to discuss. At least, not here and now."

"That's fine," Bo said. "Just one thing - Lauren and I spent a long time apart because of a misunderstanding, and I regret every minute that we lost together. Life is too short."

Janeway didn't respond, but gave a slight nod, looking ahead as they approached the hills, where the landscape tilted sharply up.

"There's the mining crew, just ahead," Janeway said, gesturing to some Starfleet crates that were stacked outside the entrance to a cave. As they approached, a woman with pointed ears wearing a yellow tunic emerged carrying another crate.

"Lieutenant Hook," the captain said in greeting. "Report."

"Almost finished, Captain. We found several cubic meters of dilithium." She lay the crate down next to its peers.

"Just one more to go. Ensigns Smith and Beaver will be up soon with the last one."

"Ensign Beaver?" Bo whispered to Lauren. "Really?"

Lauren nudged her. "Hush."

"Good work," the captain said.

The lieutenant affixed a tracker to the group of crates and walked back into the cave.

"Is Lieutenant Hook another Vulcan?" Lauren murmured to Seven. "She has the same ears as Tuvok."

"She is not," Seven replied in a low tone. "She is a Romulan. They share a common ancestor, though millennia ago, the Romulans embraced emotion while the Vulcans chose logic. However, Romulans are not popular among most of the Federation, and Hook was posing as a Vulcan in order to serve with the Maquis. She is a competent officer, so we allow her to maintain her deception."

"You're humoring her," Lauren said.

"That is what the captain calls it."

Two more crewmembers emerged from the mouth of the cave, carrying a crate between them. A shifting breeze brought the tail end of a conversation that was clearly meant to remain private toward the women.

"I'm telling you, Beaverino, the Delaney sisters are smokin' hot. And after that double date they had two years ago with Tom Paris and Harry Kim, they told Lieutenant Wildman they were swearing off men."

"Oh, _Annie,"_ said Ensign Beaver in exasperation.

"Will you just think about it, please? They're a package deal."

The ensigns set their crate down with the others and stood up, dusting off their uniforms. Lieutenant Hook emerged behind them from the cave and touched her communicator badge.

"Lieutenant Hook to Voyager. Six dilithium crates to beam to Cargo Bay One."

_"Acknowledged."_

As Bo and Lauren watched in fascination, the group of crates started to shimmer. They become translucent, and the women could see the shrubs and rocks through the gradually fading images of the crates.

Then the world exploded.

Bo wasn't sure what happened, but her mind immediately flashed back to the battle with the Revenants. The violence was immediate, but much faster-paced than the plodding Revenants. The amount of visual stimulation was almost overwhelming. After the initial adrenaline rush, she understood what was happening.

They were under attack by aliens. It was an ambush.

The aliens were large and stocky, yet they moved fast. They wielded long, curving knives, though they didn't try to slash any of the Voyager crew. Rather, they attacked with punches and kicks. There were five that Bo counted, immediately assessing their odds. She reached for the dagger in her boot, though she wasn't sure how effective it would be against their attackers.

Every single one was bigger than Bruce. They weren't outnumbered, but they were hopelessly outmuscled.

As Bo watched in horror, both Ensigns Smith and Beaver took punches to the gut that left them gasping. Lieutenant Hook drew what looked like a laser pistol and shot an energy beam at one of the assailants. He was momentarily disabled, but another alien charged the lieutenant and hit Hook's forearm with the hilt of his scythe. Her pistol dropped from suddenly nerveless fingers.

Seven and the captain had also drawn their weapons, and Seven managed to get off a couple of shots before an alien struck the pistol out of her hand.

The captain was shouting.

"Away team to Voyager. We're under attack by Hirogen."

Harry Kim's voice crackled through the captain's communicator.

_"So are we, Captain. Taking phaser fire. Unable to beam you out while the shields are up."_

"Damn," the captain said, adjusting her pistol. She aimed at the aliens who were grappling with the mining crew, but couldn't get a clear shot for fear of hitting her people. Then an alien clipped her in the side of the head with the butt of his knife.

Though it seemed like forever, the fight had been going on for only about ten seconds. But Bo was jolted into action as two of the stocky aliens turned toward them and advanced toward Lauren.

The circumstances were dire. Ensigns Beaver and Smith had both sustained blows to the head and appeared to be unconscious. Lieutenant Hook's arm was injured, though she gamely fought on. Seven seemed to be holding her own against a Hirogen in hand-to-hand combat, but the captain had blood streaming freely from her temple as she kicked at an attacker.

Lauren tensed beside Bo as two of the aliens approached them.

Bo's brown eyes started to glow blue.

Seven aimed a punch at the alien but frowned as he froze in place, as did the others. She looked over at Bo.

Ribbons of blue energy emerged from each Hirogen's mouth and converged into one, entering Bo's open mouth. Her eyes grew brighter as the seconds passed, and finally the ends of the ribbons emerged from the alien's mouths.

As Bo consumed the last of the energy, the Hirogen collapsed. Bo's eyes slowly turned back to their normal brown, and she stumbled slightly, shaking her head. Lauren moved to support her.

As fast-paced and violent as the fight had been, it was anticlimactic how quickly it was over.

The captain stared at Bo, but quickly turned her attention to her injured crew.

"Janeway to Voyager. Report."

_"We've disabled the Hirogen ship, Captain."_

"Seven crewmembers to beam directly to Sickbay. Alert the Doctor."

_"Aye, Captain."_

Bo felt the disorienting effects of the transporter beam as the rocky landscape dissolved around her.


	11. Conference

"This dermal regenerator is amazing," Lauren said to the Doctor, examining the device. "How does it work?"

The away team had been beamed directly to Sickbay, and the Doctor had wasted no time enlisting Lauren's help with triage. The Captain's head injury was superficial, and after a quick lesson, Lauren had easily closed it with the tool after the Doctor had determined there was no concussion. Ensigns Smith and Beaver had bruises that Lauren dispatched as well, while the Doctor focused on Lieutenant Hook's arm injury.

The Hirogen's scythe had not only severed some blood vessels and nerves near the wrist, but had also cracked the radius. Despite the severity of the injury, Lauren was amazed that the Doctor was able to restore the arm to its original state in less than ten minutes.

"It supersaturates and focuses the body's natural regenerative enzymes and processes toward the injury," the Doctor replied."What would normally take days or weeks to heal can be mended in mere moments with this bone knitter."

"Sort of like Bo's healing ability."

"That's a very good analogy," the doctor said. "Though neither the dermal regenerator nor the bone knitter supplies any external cellular energy. All the power needed comes from the patient's own reserves of available glucose and glycogen. And body fat and muscle, if the injury is severe. That's why I relieved Lieutenant Hook of the rest of her duty shift. Regrowing the nerve connections in her arm probably depleted most of her available quick energy."

The medical treatment had lasted barely longer than the fight. The two ensigns were already back to work in engineering processing the dilithium. Bo, noticing Lauren's interest in the Doctor's medical devices and still buzzing from her unexpected Hirogen chi-feast, had decided to check out Voyager's gym facilities. Seven had shown her the way on her back to Astrometrics, and the captain, assured that her crew was safe and sound, had returned to the bridge.

"I wonder if there would be a way to make a device that could draw cellular energy from another person and transfer it to the patient. Like a chi transfusion," Lauren mused.

The Doctor looked over at her. "That would certainly help in cases where a patient was grievously wounded. It would speed recovery, and here in the Delta Quadrant, every crewmember is essential."

"If we understood more about how Bo was able to extract chi from others, that would help," Lauren said. "So far I've pieced together that it involves somehow modulating other people's bioelectric energy, but the mechanism is still a mystery."

"If I could initiate a detailed, full-body scan while Bo is extracting chi from a subject, perhaps the medical imaging computer could help reveal the mechanism," the Doctor said.

"Like an MRI?" Lauren asked.

"Similar in concept to magnetic resonance imaging from your time," the Doctor said. "But a thousandfold more detailed. We can observe individual molecules interacting."

"I would love to see that," Lauren said. "I'll ask Bo if she's willing."

* * *

Captain Janeway leaned forward and rested her elbows on the conference room table. She made eye contact with everyone in the room. Seven of Nine, B'Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, Harry Kim, Chakotay, the Doctor, and a lieutenant from exobiology.

"The Hirogen ship was hiding inside a moon and our scans didn't detect it. We got lucky this time - but going up against the Borg, we can't afford to be so careless a second time.

"I have no illusions about what I'm asking you all to do. Deliberately infiltrating an undamaged Borg vessel is dangerous, and that's an understatement. I believe that we are peripherally responsible for Bo and Lauren's being here in the first place, although from what they tell us, if they hadn't ended up here, they would have ended up in Hell. Regardless, we have a plan to send them back, and to do that, we need a functional transwarp coil."

"Captain, from what they've told us, their world is full of danger and they're being stalked on all sides by people who wish them harm. Would it really be so bad for them if they stayed here?" Chakotay asked.

"Home has a powerful hold on people," Harry Kim interjected.

Chakotay nodded and fell silent.

"No one is required to go on this mission, and I won't hold it against anyone if you don't volunteer. We need three people. I'll be leading the mission."

"Captain..." Chakotay objected.

"I wouldn't ask any of you to do anything that I myself am not willing to do. Commander, you'll be in charge while I'm gone. If the mission fails, or if the Borg threaten Voyager while we're over there, I want you to get everyone out of harm's way:"

Chakotay locked eyes with the captain, and nodded. He knew exactly what she was saying - she was telling him to abandon her and the others if things went sideways, rather than attempt a rescue.

Seven of Nine raised her hand. "I volunteer."

Janeway nodded.

Tom Paris raised his hand.

"Tom, I appreciate your willingness to volunteer. But if Voyager needs to make a fast escape, we have to have our best pilot at the helm."

B'Elanna Torres raised her hand. "Fine. I'll do it. You'll need an engineer along anyway."

"Lieutenant, I am more than capable of locating and removing a transwarp coil," Seven informed her.

"That's true, but I'm not going to let you and the captain have all the fun," said the Klingon. "Are we bringing the rifles armed with modified nanoprobes?"

"No," Janeway said. "This is a stealth mission, and weaponry in the hands of maintenance drones would attract unwanted attention. Now let's talk about camouflage. The Doctor has improved slightly on the Hansens' bio-dampeners, and Lieutentant Commander Barrick from exobiology has extrapolated some behavioral guidelines from the data we collected in our previous encounters with the Borg. She's going to brief us now."

The Bajoran officer rose from her seat at the conference room table and pulled up a schematic of a Borg drone on the viewscreen.

"The Borg assimilates individual humanoids, but their behavior after being assimilated is not individualized. In fact, it's much closer to that of an insect colony, where the colony itself is the organism, in a way," the lieutenant commander began.

"That makes it easier to blend in with them if you follow a few simple rules - but it also means that any misstep is immediately communicated to the entire hive mind via their subspace network."

The captain listened, though part of her attention was occupied by worrying that she was being foolhardy.

If she had learned one thing from her years of dealing with the Borg, it was that things could go very wrong very quickly.


	12. Invasion

Bo sat on the biobed while Lauren took her vital signs, as the Doctor, in his office, made some final entries in the preliminary log for the experiment.

"This tricorder is a fantastic piece of technology," Lauren said. "I wish I had one in my lab."

"That's the fourth time you've said that," Bo said, shifting restlessly.

Lauren touched the tricorder's screen and used it to scan Bo. "How are you feeling? You're within the high-normal range for chi. You got a lot from those Hirogen aliens."

"You're saying I'm irritable," Bo translated. "It's not the chi. It's that every time we get close to each other on this ship,we get interrupted. It's like something is conspiring against us."

"I know," Lauren said. "I'll make you a promise. As soon as we're finished with these scans, we'll go back to our cabin and we won't answer the door, the communicators or anything else. The ship will have to literally be on fire to make us stop."

Bo relaxed. "That sounds great."

"What sounds great?" the doctor asked, walking out from his office holding a PADD.

"Getting this scan over with," Bo said.

"Don't worry," the Doctor said. "The scan itself will only take as long as it takes you to extract some cellular energy from Doctor Lewis, and after that, you're free to go. The analysis after the fact will be what takes the time. The medical computer takes the data from the molecular level and synthesizes it into a three-dimensional model that..."

"You're as bad as Lauren," Bo interrupted. "Let's get this show on the road."

Unperturbed, the Doctor smiled cheerfully and said "Lie down, please." Bo complied, and the Doctor pressed some buttons that made the sensor cluster emerge from either side of the biobed and join above Bo's torso with a click.

"This reminds me of Krampus," she said. "You don't happen to make candy here, do you?"

"Certainly not," the Doctor said. "This is a serious medical facility. And candy rots your teeth."

"Not _my_ teeth," Bo said. "Superhuman healing, you know."

The Doctor ignored that and pressed more buttons on the sensor ring, humming while he worked.

"You know, my creator was also named Dr. Lewis," he said to Lauren. "Though that was his first name, not his surname. Dr. Lewis Zimmerman."

"Lewis isn't actually my real last name," Lauren said.

"Oh?" said the Doctor.

"It's Beattie," Bo interjected.

"I see why you changed it," the Doctor said. "All done here! We're ready to begin."

"Now?" Bo asked as Lauren bent over to kiss her.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "Extract some chi, please. Five seconds ought to do it."

Bo kissed Lauren's lips and drew out a thin stream of blue light. The Doctor counted to five, and then said "And, time."

Bo cut off the stream of chi and Lauren stumbled a bit, supporting herself on the biobed. The Doctor pressed more buttons and the sensor array drew back. Bo sat up and immediately embraced Lauren, kissing her and forcing some chi back into the blonde woman's mouth.

"Perfect!" said the Doctor. "We have several teraquads of data at the molecular level that I'll get started on analyzing. You two can go, unless you'd like to stay and help."

"Maybe next time," Bo said, jumping off the biobed after making sure that Lauren was steady on her feet.

"That's right, next time! I'll want to repeat this analysis, but next time actually during the sexual act so we can measure any differences in your bloodstream and mitochondria," the Doctor said.

"What? In here?" said Lauren.

"Or in the holodeck, if you prefer. Don't worry, you'll have complete privacy. My interest is purely scientific, not prurient."

"Sounds great!" Bo said, taking Lauren's hand and dragging her toward the door.

"See you soon!" the Doctor called after them as the doors whisked open.

"Not if I can help it," Bo muttered under her breath as they left.

* * *

The doors to the turbolift hadn't even fully closed before Lauren pushed Bo against the wall and captured her lips in a kiss. She reached down and cupped the succubus' bottom as she drove her tongue into Bo's mouth and ground her hips against Bo's.

"Wow," said Bo as Lauren paused for breath.

"I think you must have given me a little extra chi," Lauren said. "I can't wait to get you out of these clothes. I mean, that's normal, but I mean, I REALLY can't wait."

The turbolift came to a halt and the doors opened on Deck Three.

"Hold that thought," Bo said, grasping Lauren's hand and leading her down the hall.

Halfway to their cabin, Lauren gripped Bo's hand again and shoved her against the bulkhead for another passionate kiss.

"We're almost there," Bo said.

"I'm almost there too," Lauren replied, curling a leg around Bo's hips, desperate for contact.

The ship shuddered.

"Whoa," Bo said. "Did you just...?"

"What?" said Lauren, grinding against Bo.

The ship shuddered again, this time more violently. The lights in the corridor started to glow a blinking red, and an alarm sounded.

That caught Lauren's attention.

"What is happening?"

The ship shuddered a third time, this time so abruptly that Bo and Lauren staggered. The bulkhead just ahead of them sputtered, and a panel shot off the wall, exposing some gel packs. The gel packs emitted a stream of sparks into the hallway and then caught fire, burning briskly.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," Lauren said. "The ship is LITERALLY on fire."

A harsh mechanical voice sounded over the ship's comm system.

_"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated into our collective and your distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile."_

The low whine of a transporter beam sounded, and three humanoid life forms shimmered into existence around them. As they fully materialized, Bo and Lauren were confronted by three hulking beings covered in greenish-tinged armor with metal implants adorning their bodies.

"The Borg, huh?" Bo said. "They look like Revenants after a rough night at a biker bar."

Almost as one unit, the three beings swung their heads toward Bo and Lauren and began to lumber toward them. Bo backed away, pulling Lauren with her. The Borg weren't fast, but they were persistent, and one of them reached out an arm toward Bo. Two tubules emerged from the wrist area, twisting sinuously back and forth toward her neck.

"Gross!" Bo said, and aimed a punch at the drone's midsection, connecting solidly with metal. "Ow!" She cradled her hand.

The drone didn't even acknowledge the blow. It and the other two Borg drones converged on her and Lauren. One of the drones reached out and clamped Lauren's arm in its hand. The doctor struggled, but couldn't break free from the drone.

"Oh, hell no," Bo said. "I've had enough of this crap." She opened her mouth and drew the chi from all three of the Borg, who stiffened and then dropped to the ground.

Bo turned to the side and emitted a half-cough, half-burp. Some green-colored chi escaped from her mouth in a cloud, and dissipated into the air. She blinked.

"That's new," Lauren said.

Bo flexed her hand, which had healed in an instant.

"Can you find that transporter room?" Bo asked. Lauren nodded, and they ran down the corridor.


	13. Assimilation

"I can't do this," Ensign Quan said to Bo. "I would be breaking so many Starfleet regulations."

"Screw Starfleet regulations!" Bo said. "There are mechanical zombies all over your ship. That means that the captain and Seven and B'Elanna are probably in big trouble too."

"You don't understand," Ensign Quan said. "Going into a Borg ship - it's suicide. Even the biggest weapon can't bring them down."

"Bo is a big girl weapon. She just took down three Borg by our cabin without even trying," Lauren said. "She'll be okay."

Ensign Quan blanched. "What kind of bounty hunters are you?"

"Nevermind," Bo said. "We're wasting time. Send me over."

The ship shuddered again. Ensign Quan swallowed, then nodded.

"Do you still have my communicator badge?"

Bo nodded. "Do you need it back?"

"No, keep it. I'll need it to beam you out."

Bo ran over to the transporter pad and stood still. She locked eyes with Lauren.

"Bring them back." Lauren said.

Bo nodded. "I love you."

Ensign Quan fed power to the transporters, and Bo disappeared in a haze of sparkly light.

"She's really brave," Quan said. "Does she know what she's getting into?"

"I don't know if she knows everything about what she's heading into, but even if she did, she'd still do it."

Lauren paused and then spoke with quiet conviction.

"Bo is the bravest person I know."

* * *

Before getting catapulted into the Delta Quadrant. Kathryn Janeway had always followed rules and regulations to the letter. She had been cautious to a fault, though she hadn't thought of it that way at the time. After Voyager had been transported to the Delta Quadrant, she had kept Starfleet protocol alive on Voyager to give stability and structure to her crew, which had absorbed many of the Maquis rebels they had been pursuing, and also because she thought ensuring order meant they would have a greater chance of returning home.

But being alone, cut off from the assistance and oversight of Starfleet, had forced her to become more independent and to take more risks. Though she would never admit it to anyone, there were times she thought of herself as a bit of a swashbuckler. And boarding a Borg sphere right under their noses without being detected had appealed to her dangerous pirate side.

Borg spheres were the smaller of the two main Borg vessels, measuring around 600 meters in diameter. They often acted as scout ships, or were embedded into one of the larger Borg cubes. They contained thousands of drones, and were large enough to contain a starship the size of Voyager, so they weren't insignificant by any stretch of the imagination, but Janeway still preferred to try to infiltrate a sphere instead of a cube.

Right now she was regretting that she had ever deviated one iota from Starfleet procedures. A covert mission to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg vessel to help two time-travelers from a different universe was most definitely not on the approved list of activities for a starship captain.

The mission had started out smoothly enough. The Doctor's improved bio-dampeners worked even better than the Hansen's had, and following Lt. Commander Barrick's guidelines for remaining inconspicuous, she and her crew had shuffled undetected through the Borg vessel. Seven had led them directly to the section of the sphere that housed the backup transwarp coils, and B'Elanna had made swift work of detaching the bulkhead panels and removing a coil without triggering any alarms or damaging the technology.

It was something silly, random and unexpected that brought them to the Borg's attention.

Klingons had been assimilated by the Borg, although their fierce natures and strong musculoskeletal systems meant that despite the Borg's assertions that resistance was futile, Klingons did resist slightly more often than other species when confronted with the questing tubules from a drone. Resistance often led to death, not escape, but the fact was, Klingons were slightly less likely to be successfully assimilated than other species.

Allergies were a thing of the past in the 24th century, with broad-spectrum inoculations modulating the body's occasionally overzealous immunoglobulin responses to allergens. But sometimes the inoculations didn't completely address all of the unique genetic variations that came with cross-species hybrids.

Borg ships were humid by design. Greater moisture in the air helped to keep the intimate biological fusion of flesh and technology intact - and was incidentally an ideal environment for mold spores to flourish. The Borg would never tolerate actual fruiting bodies of mold in their ships, but the air filters in their cubes and spheres couldn't completely remove all the spores from the atmosphere. Spores were one of the most resilient life forms in the galaxy, able to remain dormant for centuries until conditions were right for them to germinate.

And as it happened, mold spores were one of the allergens that the Federation inoculations had trouble with when it came to B'Elanna's hybrid human/Klingon physiology. It wasn't usually an issue on Voyager, which maintained a lower level of humidity, but the mold spores in the air irritated the chief engineer. Not by much, but by enough that as they were slowly shuffling back to the beam-out location, B'Elanna sneezed.

Borg did not sneeze. The nanoprobes, micro-machines that circulated in their bodies, maintained homeostasis and continually removed any foreign substances from their systems. Borg did breathe, but the ability to sneeze wasn't part of their repertoire after assimilation.

Even then, they might have gotten away with it. Borg drones were specialized to the functions that they performed, so an isolated sneeze might have been something they noticed briefly and then disregarded as an anomaly. Critical thinking wasn't one of their central skills, except for a Borg Queen, and there was no Queen on this sphere - Janeway had made darned sure of that.

But B'Elanna sneezed again and again, the mold spores triggering a histamine cascade in her immune system that caused a sneezing episode far larger in length and decibels than the tiny amount of mold spores warranted. Such was the nature of the marriage of the human and Klingon immune systems. It was as if the Klingon part of her was determined to conquer the invading spores by the sheer strength of the sneezes.

This, the Borg drones could not ignore. There were four in the area, and they walked toward Janeway, Seven and B'Elanna.

Janeway knew their only chance for escape was speed and the rapidly dwindling element of surprise.

_"Run."_

She, Seven and B'Elanna sprinted past the approaching drones. They were faster than the methodical pace of the cybernetic beings, but Janeway knew that the drones were already communicating with the rest of the ship about the intruders, and probably scanning the area for signs of a starship. She, Harry and Seven had cooked up a pretty good cloaking ruse for Voyager that made it invisible to most routine scans that the Borg conducted, but it wouldn't hold up to the kind of intense scrutiny the Borg would employ if they suspected they had been hornswoggled.

And her worst fears seemed to be coming true, because even as they ran through the corridors dodging drones, some of the drones were beaming out. That could only mean they had found Voyager and were boarding the ship.

Not for the first time, Janeway cursed her stupidity and recklessness in deliberately trying to deceive the Borg. Bo and Lauren would have been fine aboard Voyager. There was no shortage of hostile alien ships trying to capture the Federation starship as they journeyed through the Delta Quadrant, so the succubus could have been their secret weapon, and stayed satiated too. Or the Doctor could have found a way to keep her physiology supplied with what it needed.

They pounded along the corridor, almost to the place where they had been able to dampen down the Borg shields enough to beam in undetected. But the drones were finally converging on them and blocked their way with purposeful intent.

Janeway didn't intend to go down without a fight.

"Janeway to Voyager. Requesting immediate beam-out."

There was no response from Voyager, though she knew that if they were being boarded by the Borg, her crew had their hands full and would try to get a transporter lock on them as soon as possible.

Then there was no more time for thought, because the drones were upon them.

Phasers were generally useless against the Borg, so they hadn't brought any. It was hand-to-hand combat. As the only full human in their trio, Janeway had the least physical strength, although even Seven with her remaining Borg enhancements and B'Elanna with her half-Klingon physiology were still no match for the superior physical strength of the drones. B'Elanna was holding her own for the time being, though.

When she saw three drones converge on Seven, the captain found an inner surge of adrenaline that surprised even her. She wrenched her arm free from the drone who held her, and launched herself at the Borg who was facing Seven with assimilation tubules extended while two other drones pinned back her arms. Janeway leapt onto its back, wrapped her arm around the drone's neck and ripped at the tubules.

The drone barely paused, and used its other hand to remove her arm from around its neck. He dropped her to the ground, where she landed hard. From her vantage point, she saw the tubules enter Seven's neck.

"SEVEN!" she cried.

From the moment she had disconnected the Borg drone from the Collective three years ago, Janeway had felt responsible for the person that Seven would become. At the time, it had been a matter of necessity - the drone Seven had been was stranded on their ship when a tenuous alliance between Voyager and the Borg had collapsed with stunning swiftness. Rather than kill her, Janeway decided to disconnect her from the Collective and teach her how to be an individual. It had been a rewarding, if sometimes trying decision.

Seven stiffened as the tubules injected nanoprobes into her neck. It was almost instantaneous how quickly additional implants erupted on the surface of her skin. The full process of assimilation took mere minutes, but it always gave Janeway the willies to see how quickly the spark of individuality left the eyes of a person who was being assimilated.

Janeway struggled in vain to reach Seven. From her peripheral vision she saw B'Elanna locked in combat with two other drones. So far they hadn't managed to subdue the half-Klingon enough to assimilate her, but it was only a matter of time.

As Janeway felt assimilation tubules puncture her own neck, she thought she heard the whine of a transporter. More drones beaming over to Voyager, she figured.

Her last conscious thought was, _I hope Chakotay listens to me and gets Voyager the hell out of here._


	14. Rescue

Bo materialized on the Borg ship and was immediately struck by how alien and humid the environment felt. There was no one in her immediate vicinity, but she heard the sounds of a struggle from around a corner, and a guttural, yet piercing battle cry. She took off at a run.

As she rounded the corner she saw B'Elanna Torres locked in combat with a drone. The half-Klingon was holding her own, and Bo saw the engineer elude an attempt from the drone to immobilize her. Then she ripped the Borg's ocular implant from its eye socket.

The captain and Seven, however, were not faring so well. Both were motionless, staring into space as the cybernetic invaders in their bodies worked furiously to augment and replace their biological systems with synthetic parts.

The captain had a metal starburst erupting on her face, and implants were peeking out from under the left sleeve of her tunic, making their way gradually up toward her hand. Her skin had taken on a markedly greenish tone, though she didn't yet resemble the full assimilated drones - she more looked like someone who had eaten a bad oyster. The drones that had subdued and assimilated the captain were standing by, seemingly on guard as the nanoprobes rapidly took over their victims.

Seven was further along in her process, and had correspondingly more implants showing. Her hair had begun to recede, and her left eye had grown the protruding ocular implant so common to the Borg drones.

Bo took all of this in with the practiced air of a fighter used to sizing up the competition and assessing the odds and strategy in a split second. Making a decision, she strode over to the Borg B'Elanna was fighting with and put her hand on its neck.

The Borg's physical strength meant that it wasn't easy for her to pull its face toward hers, but it was distracted and partially disabled by the beating B'Elanna was administering, so Bo was able to extract chi from it before it knew what was happening.

This chi was different from any other chi she'd fed upon, even during the test with Seven. There was just so much _more_ of it. She felt it flowing into each corner of her body, her extremities tingling, and felt the familiar surge of energy that came with feeding when she wasn't injured. But there was an additional component, too, she could tell - something alien that her body rejected.

After draining the drone, she turned her head to the side and let out a cross between a cough and a belch. A stream of green light emerged from her mouth and dissipated into the humid air of the corridor.

"Bad aftertaste?" B'Elanna asked.

Bo gave her a wry look. "It's like a wet dog moved into my mouth and had puppies. Watch my back."

She moved over to the captain, who stood motionless as her body continued to grow more implants. The captain didn't stir when Bo approached her, and neither did the drone who stood nearby.

"Here goes nothing," Bo said.

The first time Bo had ever transferred chi into a person, instead of taking it from them, she was in great distress. Dyson had been assaulted by her mother, Aife, and the only thing that saved him from death was Bo's timely interruption. She had managed to revive Dyson by pushing chi into his body, as she had learned from Aife, though it had been mostly an instinctual act driven by her fear of losing him.

Since then, she had learned how to transfer chi even when she wasn't near the edge of panic.

She concentrated and found the captain's chi. It tasted to her like the chi of many humans, but also had that metallic alien taste she had encountered when draining the Borg drones. She visualized her chi like a series of ribbons, entwined them with the captain's, and began to _push._

As she fed chi into the captain, she wasn't sure what exactly was happening inside the woman's body, but she could see the effects immediately. Janeway's skin lost its greenish cast, and the metal starburst on her face fell off. Her left arm shed its metal portions and the skin returned to normal.

After a few seconds, it was done. Bo cut off the flow of chi and the captain blinked.

"What the hell?" she said in a raspy voice.

Bo helped support Janeway, who staggered a bit. "We'll explain later. Right now we have to get Seven and get out of here."

B'Elanna called over from where she was struggling with the two drones who had been keeping watch over Seven and the captain, who had finally realized that something was amiss. "Quickly, too, or I'm going to end up assimilated."

Bo ran over to the Klingon's side and drained the chi from the two drones, who dropped to the floor. Again, she turned her head and coughed out some green smoke.

She heard the captain gasp, and looked over. Seven of Nine had opened her eyes. Her assimilation had progressed apace, and the drone was still recognizable as Seven, but only barely. She started to lumber toward the captain.

B'Elanna glanced down the corridor. "Whatever we do, it had better be quick. Looks like half the Collective is on their way here."

Janeway's lips thinned. "We can't bring a Borg drone aboard Voyager - especially one who knows all the ship's systems. But I won't leave Seven. You two go."

"But Captain..."

"That's an order," Janeway said, with no room in her tone for argument.

Bo made a snap decision. She ran over to Seven.

"I told you to go." the captain said in a steely tone.

"I don't take orders well," Bo said. "Buy us some time," she said to B'Elanna.

The succubus locked lips with the drone who had been Seven, but instead of pushing chi in, she drew it out.

B'Elanna understood at once, and ripped off a panel on the bulkhead, exposing wires. She quickly began to work, ripping out wires and forcing new connections. The electronics began to smoke.

The advancing drones were almost upon them.

Bo stopped draining chi, and Seven sagged into her arms. She staggered under the weight, but managed to tap her communicator badge.

"Quan! Get us out of here!"

As the drones entered the area where the women were, the connections B'Elanna had made finally overloaded. The panel and wires exploded, and the concussive wave knocked the drones back.

The transporter beam had already grabbed the Starfleet women and Bo, and they dissolved into nothingness as the room filled with sparks and fire.


	15. Chi

Bo, struggling to hold an unconscious Seven upright, materialized in Sickbay along with Janeway and B'Elanna. The Doctor quickly helped Bo lift the drone - for the assimilation had progressed enough that she was more Borg than human - onto a biobed. He scanned Seven with his ever-present medical tricorder.

"What's the status of the ship?" Janeway asked.

"When you all did whatever it was that you did before beaming in here, all of the Borg drones suddenly shut down," the Doctor said. "It was excellent timing."

"I infected their ship with a computer virus," B'Elanna said. "It disabled their systems and their neural link for a while. They'll adapt eventually, but it should give us about half an hour."

The Doctor had completed his scan.

"She's nearly critical," he said. "I'm not sure that I can reverse this. She barely has any energy at all left in her body."

"Bo drained a lot of her chi to knock her out so we could bring her aboard Voyager," B'Elanna said.

"If we could allow her to regenerate, that might help, but we'd need to get her down to the cargo bay. But then after a few hours, we'd just have a fully functional Borg drone on our hands," the Doctor said.

Janeway's face was grim. She stood by Seven, holding her left hand, which was almost completely taken over by the mechanical implants.

"What are our options?" the captain asked the Doctor.

"I've got this," Bo said. She walked over to the biobed and lowered her mouth to Seven's again.

Bo's experience with taking chi from the Borg so far was that it was a curious combination of what she was used to, and a very different sort that her body wasn't able to process. It tasted vaguely mechanical, like oil and metal, and each time she had drawn chi from one of the cybernetic beings, she'd had to expel the foreign substance. It was involuntary, and felt more like belching than vomiting, but she couldn't have held onto the Borg chi even if she'd wanted to.

With Seven, she could sense the two types of chi within the woman's body, the mechanical energy struggling for dominance over the organic. Bo found the thread of organic chi, faint but there, and grabbed onto it, pushing some of her own life force into the Borg woman.

Seven remained unconscious, though her color eased slightly, and one of the implants on her face shuddered a bit, peeling halfway away from her cheek.

Bo extracted herself from Seven and inhaled a deep breath. She had transferred as much of her own chi to Seven as she dared.

As B'Elanna, Janeway and the Doctor watched, the metal implant straightened out the arms of the starburst and drove themselves back into Seven's face.

"Her nanoprobes are reasserting themselves," the Doctor said. "Her body is trying to re-assimilate her."

"You need more chi," Janeway said. "Take mine." She strode over to Bo and stood in front of the succubus with urgency in her eyes.

"Do it."

Bo didn't argue. She took some of the captain's chi - not enough to debilitate the woman, but she knew that Janeway would feel it when she was finished.

The doors to Sickbay opened and Lauren and Ensign Quan burst in. Lauren saw Seven on the biobed and Bo taking chi from the captain, and immediately understood what the succubus was doing. She murmured something to Ensign Quan, who nodded and tapped her communicator, speaking quietly into the device.

Bo turned back to Seven and transferred the chi to her. This time, the implant on Seven's face popped out and fell onto the bed next to her. The captain stumbled a bit, but supported herself by leaning on the biobed, refusing to leave Seven's side.

"Here," B'Elanna said. "I'm next."

Bo nodded, and transferred some of the Klingon's chi to Seven. Another implant fell off.

"This isn't happening fast enough," she said.

The Doctor scanned Seven. "This is a case of three steps forward, two steps back. If you can restore the ratio of organic to cybernetic matter back to roughly what it was before, Seven's systems will stabilize. But her nanoprobes will keep trying to re-assimilate her until you're able to reach that ratio."

"Then let's make sure that doesn't happen," said Ensign Quan, stepping forward. "I'm your next volunteer."

As Bo took some of Quan's chi, the doors to Sickbay opened, and four more women entered. Lauren recognized Ensigns Smith and Beaver and Lieutenant Hook from the planet where they had mined dilithium. She didn't recognize the fourth woman, who had short blonde hair and an elaborate metal earring on her left ear, but they all seemed to know each other.

When Bo had finished transferring Quan's chi to Seven, Ensign Smith stepped up.

"I'm here! Do it to me, too. Whatever it is," she said to Bo.

"What is this? Lieutenant Hook? Lieutenant Commander Barrick? Explain," Janeway said.

"I told them to come," Ensign Quan said. "Seven is our friend."

"Ah, yes," the Doctor said. "Seven told me that she had been spending time with some crewmembers in an effort to improve her socialization skills."

"I don't know that hanging out with us is improving her social skills," said Lieutenant Commander Barrick. "But she's learning to play euchre. We don't want to lose our sixth - it took us too long to find anyone else on the ship who was interested in a twentieth century card game."

"Then let's keep going," Bo said. She took chi from Ensign Smith, then moved on to Beaver, Hook and Barrick in rapid succession.

She transferred the chi to Seven of Nine in one go, and this time the progress was remarkable. Seven's color changed from greenish back to pinkish, and several more implants fell out. She retained the implant around her eye and a starburst near her jawline, much as she had appeared before being re-assimilated.

"How is she now, Doctor?" Bo asked.

He scanned Seven again. "She's almost back to normal, but I'd feel more comfortable with some insurance."

Lauren stepped forward. "My turn."

"Are you sure?" Bo asked.

"She's my friend too," Lauren said.

Bo transferred Lauren's chi, and the Doctor beamed with relief.

"She's back to her previous ratio."

"Why isn't she waking up?" the captain asked.

"She's been through an incredibly traumatic event, being re-assimilated. It's possible that her psyche just needs some extra time to recover. I'm going to keep her here for observation."

Chakotay's voice sounded over the ship's comm system.

" _Chakotay to Janeway."_

"Here, Commander," she said.

" _We've got problems. The sphere must have sent out a distress call. Our scans have detected a Borg cube heading this way. ETA twenty minutes."_


	16. Cherry Blossoms

Janeway had learned many things in Starfleet Academy. But she had learned infinitely more during her time in charge of a starship lost in the Delta Quadrant with only herself to rely on.

She was terribly worried about Seven, but set the worry aside. She would return to it when the Borg cube had been dealt with. Besides, if she didn't deal with the threat, it was possible the question of Seven's well-being would be moot. And that was a possibility Janeway refused to consider.

One thing Janeway had perfected in the last four years was the ability to put her emotions on hold when the situation demanded it. She called it her command mask, and it had served her well - not just for herself, but to inspire the necessary confidence in her crew. When it was crunch time, it was natural to be nervous, and having a commanding officer who appeared to be calm and in control was paramount. Janeway had to be that for her crew - though she had no one to serve the role for her.

That was part and parcel of being a captain, though. The buck stopped with her. And while Janeway didn't have Starfleet Command or any admirals to call upon in a crisis, at times like these she always thought of her father, Edward Janeway.

Her father had always been her rock, her idol, and her role model. Committed to Starfleet, he and her mother had also instilled in his daughter Kathryn and her sister Phoebe love and respect for the natural world. Edward had spent a great deal of his career aboard starships and then later, at Starfleet headquarters, but he had also made time to take the family hiking along the Grand Canyon, camping, or just enjoying the outdoors in the Brown County Agricultural Park in Bloomington, Indiana where they made their home.

Later in his career, testing starship prototypes had allowed the admiral to marry his passion for Starfleet with his love of the outdoors. It was on Tau Ceti Prime that the admiral had perished under an icecap in a horrific accident while testing a new ship, and Janeway had been powerless to save him. She had entered a deep depression afterward, brought back to herself eventually by the loving attention of her mother and the somewhat more acerbic intervention of her younger sister in the form of a bucket of ice water.

Janeway had felt adrift at first, not sure how she would find her way in Starfleet - or indeed, life - without the guidance of her father. As a child, when she thought about the future, she had always envisioned him as a steady, constant presence in her life - sometimes close, sometimes distant, but always there. Commanding a starship had allowed Kathryn to rediscover a connection with her father, and she hoped that he would be proud of her.

She missed him painfully every single day. Sometimes the ache was dull, and sometimes sharp, but it was ever-present.

When she had to make decisions for the entire crew that might put them in harm's way, she pictured her father. He had radiated authority and competence. When she didn't know what to do and needed someone to lean on, she thought about him. Not about what advice he would give her in a specific situation, but about his strength, his sense of calm, and most of all, his unconditional love for her. More often than not, she felt comforted and better able to decide the best course of action.

She was visualizing her father as she walked briskly down the corridor from Sickbay to the turbolift. She felt drained from having given up some of her cellular energy to Seven, but just as Admiral Edward Janeway would have been stoic about fatigue, so was she. As she turned the corner, she heard someone calling her name.

"Captain Janeway! Wait!"

It was Bo and Lauren. Lauren seemed to be suffering similar aftereffects as herself, and was holding on to Bo's arm.

"We want to help."

Janeway didn't break stride. "I appreciate that, and your abilities are very impressive, Bo. But a Borg cube contains literally thousands of drones. By the time you could drain enough of them, we would all be assimilated."

"No, you don't understand," Bo said. "Lauren and the Doctor think they've come up with a way to deal with this."

Her father had taken Kathryn for a walk in the orchard near their home on the eve of his daughter's departure for Starfleet Academy. He was telling her a few core principles to remember that were gleaned from his long career, and had had some choice words about responding to a crisis. Janeway could remember the smell of cherry blossoms on the wind as she strolled next to her father, who had said to her:

"Katie, when the manure hits the fan, say yes to everyone who wants to help shovel it out."

Janeway trusted the Doctor, and from what she had seen so far, Lauren was very intelligent. If the two of them had been working on something, she might as well hear them out.

"Fine," she said. "Tell the Doctor I want a report in five minutes."

Bo and Lauren nodded, and made their way back to Sickbay. The last thing Janeway felt like doing was running, but she forced herself to jog the rest of the way to the turbolift.

There was no time to spare.


	17. Resistance

Lauren and Bo burst back into Sickbay. Seven still lay immobile and unconscious on the biobed, while the Doctor was busy at a console.

"The captain wants a report in five minutes," Lauren said.

"I'm not sure what I'll be able to tell her," the Doctor said. "You and I have figured out that the chi is transferred primarily through the epithelium of the small intestine via osmotic exchange, and the ATP and NADH flows across the cell membranes through a three-dimensional structure composed of Fae molecules imbued with pyruvate - I've taken the liberty of naming this the Lewis structure, for the time being - and that's how Bo both extracts and imports ATP. But I don't know how we can bring this knowledge to bear against thousands of drones on a cube."

As a hologram, the Doctor didn't need to breathe, but Lauren still expected him to take a breath after this speech. She frowned as she pondered the problem.

"Earlier, we saw drones transporting onto the ship. What would they have done if we hadn't been taken by surprise, and if we had made a getaway?"

"The Borg usually immobilize their targets with a tractor beam. It's a large energy beam that encloses the entire ship."

"When the ship was on fire, we saw some packs of something in the wall. It looked like gel."

"Those are bio-neural gel packs," the Doctor confirmed. "Organic circuits are faster and smarter than isolinear circuitry. They're the newest thing aboard Intrepid-class ships."

"Are they all throughout the ship?"

"Yes," said the Doctor.

Lauren explained what she was thinking. The Doctor nodded.

"I see. I'll inform the captain."

* * *

Janeway wanted to fidget, but forced herself to remain still in her command chair. The crew needed to sense that she was confident about the plan that Lauren and the Doctor had come up with.

The Borg cube would arrive in less than two minutes, and the sphere that hung motionless in space was already showing signs of adapting from the virus and catastrophic feedback reaction that B'Elanna had initiated.

Every fiber of her being was screaming at her to go to warp, to take evasive maneuvers, and to order the crew to arm the photon torpedos with the modified nanoprobes they had developed for Species 8472 that would assimilate the Borg - nevermind that there weren't enough. She wanted to take action.

Instead, she waited.

"Sixty seconds, Captain," called Harry Kim from the ops console.

Janeway nodded. "Steady."

The bridge was silent. Janeway had briefed them on Lauren and the Doctor's plan.

Would it work?

"Thirty seconds."

On the viewscreen, the sphere flickered and rotated toward Voyager, as if to look at it.

"The Borg sphere has regained 80% of its functional capacity," Tuvok said.

"Ten seconds."

The ten seconds that passed felt like an eternity, but all too soon they were over. A cube, five times as wide as the sphere, materialized from warp space and loomed menacingly next to the other vessel. The ships looked like, of all things, a couple of shape toys in a child's play set.

Janeway felt a surge of adrenaline hit her system, the visceral reaction she always had to the Borg. She wanted to raise shields and fire phasers. She wanted to fight. She wanted to scream.

"Steady," she said in a voice of iron.

The cube emitted a tractor beam toward Voyager, and the Starfleet ship shuddered as it was immobilized.

_"We are the Borg. This vessel will be assimilated. Resistance is..."_

"We've heard it all before," Janeway said, waving her hand. "Janeway to Engineering."

 _"Here, Captain,"_ came Torres' voice.

"Do it."

* * *

Bo sat in the main engineering room. Nearby, the warp core stood, a massive column thrumming with a barely audible rhythm, but she was left with an impression of massive power.

"I guess phallic design is alive and well in the 24th century," she remarked to Lauren, who stood nearby with a medical tricorder.

The ensign next to them gave her a confused look.

B'Elanna strode over. "Bo. It's time."

"That's my line," Bo said.

"What?"

"Sorry, just nerves. I hope this works."

"Me too," said the chief engineer. "Or we'll all be part of the Collective."

B'Elanna led Bo and Lauren over to a section of engineering where the bulkhead panel had been removed, exposing a nexus of bio-neural gel packs. A metal tube was connected to the center of the packs, with the end tapering into a mouthpiece not unlike a trombone's.

"And what's inside, again?" Bo asked.

"The Doctor and I cloned and replicated some of my epithelial cells and coated the inside with them. It's supposed to mimic a mouth, throat and esophagus," Lauren said.

"Sexy.".

The ship shuddered, and they heard the harsh sounds of the Borg telling them that resistance was futile.

"We'll see," Bo said.

The captain's voice sounded over the comm system, telling them it was time to begin, and Bo stepped up to the mouthpiece, pressing her mouth to it and trying to find some chi to grab on to.

It wasn't like kissing a person, that was for sure. But to Bo's surprise, she found a faint thread of chi, first within the simulated throat and then, further down, into what she figured was the bio-neural gel packs, the organic component of Voyager's systems that were spread evenly throughout the ship.

All throughout the ship, including close to the hull, where the Borg's tractor beam enclosed the Federation starship.

Bo closed her eyes and followed the chi through what she imagined was a meandering path through the heart of Voyager toward its outer surface. She sensed the metallic taste of the Borg as she neared what she assumed was the tractor beam.

She traveled along that metallic beam, questing, trying not to consume any of the cybernetic chi, but just following it. Further...further...

 _Ahhhhhhhh._ She sensed organic chi getting closer. A _lot_ of it.

_I wonder if..._

Bo started to pull the chi toward her. But this time, she went more slowly. Before when she had taken in chi from drones, she had been under immense pressure and had just taken whatever was available, both organic and mechanical. This time, she deliberately drew in only the organic chi.

The chi traveled toward her along the tractor beam, into Voyager's bio-neural gel packs, through the metal contraption and into her body. It was a slow but steady stream. As she consumed the chi, she sensed more in what she assumed was the rest of the cube, and eagerly stretched further.

Back on her Earth, whenever she drained many beings of their chi at once, especially from a distance, she always felt a dark presence watching, gleefully rubbing its hands, waiting for her to become intoxicated and lose control. Her mass chi-sucks were always a combination of euphoria and terror for this reason.

But in Voyager's universe, she felt no menacing presence. Just energy.

It was bliss.

* * *

Janeway was tense.

"Mr. Kim?"

Harry was monitoring the Borg cube with every scanning frequency available to him.

"No drones are transporting to Voyager, Captain."

This was unusual. Usually after the Borg immobilized a ship with a tractor beam, they immediately began transporting drones to begin assimilating the individuals on board. Occasionally they used a second beam to slice the target ship open as well so they could assimilate the ship itself.

None of that was happening. The cube hung in space, and a green energy beam tethered it to Voyager.

As Janeway watched the viewscreen, she saw some blue energy begin to appear at the surface of the cube. Slowly, it traveled along the tractor beam, making its way toward Voyager. She glanced at Harry.

"It's organic energy, Captain," he confirmed.

"What's happening aboard the cube?" she asked.

"I detect no activity," Tuvok said from the security console. "No weapons are being armed, no transporters are powering up, and there is no engine activity."

Janeway allowed herself to breath a tiny mental sigh of relief, but she didn't say anything. While she felt cautiously optimistic that the contraption the Doctor and Lauren had synthesized was scientifically solid, she knew better than to claim victory right away - both so her crew wouldn't relax their vigilance, and out of a tiny degree of human superstition.

"Janeway to Torres. Report."

 _"So far, so good, Captain,"_ came the engineer's voice over the comm. _"It's working."_

"Acknowledged. Updates every two minutes, or if the status changes dramatically."

_"Aye, Captain."_


	18. High

Bo was lost, lost in a flood of chi. It seemed that all her life before was a distant memory, or perhaps a dream. All she had ever done was to feed on chi. It entered her mouth and spread throughout her body, through her torso, her limbs, to the tips of her toes and fingers. Her entire body tingled and thrummed. She couldn't see, hear, feel or taste anything but brilliant blue chi coursing through every cell of her body.

There was no Bo anymore. No, Dyson, no Tamsin, no Hale, no Trick. No persistent memory of Kyle's lifeless body haunting her, ever-present beneath the surface of whatever she was doing. The piercing hurt she had felt when her mother called her a demon was gone. The lingering guilt from the body count of innocent - and some not-so-innocent - people that she had left in her wake during her ten years on the run had dissipated. There was no room for anything else in her brain or heart but the glorious gush of energy that lit her on fire.

Something nagged at her in a tiny corner of her mind. There was someone. Someone who was so slender as almost defied imagination. A quick smile and ice-blue eyes behind which lurked an elusive and well-guarded sadness. The feeling of arms enclosing her, and a small head leaning on her shoulder for a measure of security never sought from anyone else.

_Kenzi._

And the memory of two small arms embracing her, seeking comfort, morphed into a memory of two somewhat more muscular arms holding her firmly while a taut body moved in rhythm against hers, seeking connection, friction, and release. With the tactile memory came a rush of emotional resonance as well - tenderness, trust, a desire to possess and be possessed and above all, a thorough and all-consuming love.

Consumed even though she was by the chi that filled every cell of her body to bursting, Bo had no trouble putting a name to the emotions.

_Lauren._

And like that, she detached her mouth from the metal tube in Engineering and opened her eyes. She saw and heard the people and sounds around her as through a thick layer of gauze that was tinted a smoky baby blue, and understood that her eyes, her ears, and every surface of her body, both inside and out, was filled to bursting with chi.

"Let it out, Bo," came a familiar and well-loved voice from behind her, gentle and encouraging.

Without thinking, and without even knowing how, she complied. She opened her mouth and released the chi, which whooshed out of her throat and stomach with a subsonic vibration that was still somehow audible. As the excess left her, she felt the easing of a pressure that she hadn't known was there.

"Captain, I think round one is complete," Bo heard a modulated voice with a barely detectable undertone of growl say from off to the side. Her ears were so sensitive to every sound that the words, spoken in a normal tone of voice, made her wince.

" _There's been about a seven percent reduction in the organic energy aboard the cube,"_ came the reply.

"Acknowledged."

Bo felt a warm hand on her back, intended to both offer comfort and to assess her state of being. She knew without needing to be told what the words from the comm system meant.

She bent her head back to the metal tube and continued.

* * *

It was done.

Janeway let her rigid posture relax somewhat. During the entire time that Bo had been draining the Borg cube - and then, when she was finished with the cube, the sphere - she had wanted to pace around the bridge. But experience had taught her not to give in, for the simple reason that if something went sideways and the Borg ships attacked, the inertial dampeners on Voyager would likely not compensate quickly enough.

"Final status, Mr. Kim?"

Harry checked the ops console. "Both Borg ships are operational, but dormant. I'm not detecting any organic life signs."

She nodded. "Tuvok, organize a security crew to accompany an engineering detail for salvage. You know what to do. We'll be leaving here in no less than thirty minutes."

"Aye, Captain."

Janeway stopped to survey her bridge crew. Though Bo had done all of the work, she was proud of them. They had kept their composure during one of the highest-pressure situations they had yet encountered as a combined crew in the Delta Quadrant. Trusting an unknown person to defend them when they were used to being self-reliant to the extreme took courage and poise.

She gave them one of the highest compliments a captain could give her crew.

"Good work, people."

Though no one responded, she sensed a collective sense of pride and spine-straightening among them.

"I'll be in Sickbay."

* * *

Bo was talking a mile a minute as she and Lauren walked to Sickbay. Though both Lauren's medical tricorder and her intuition informed her that the succubus had possession of her faculties - she was just very, very high on chi - she held on to some concern. Bo had previously ingested the chi of hundreds of Revenants, but had expended most of it during a journey through the vacuum of space surrounded by a phaser beam.

This time, she had exceeded her previous limit by a factor of ten, at least. She had vented a great deal of chi while in Engineering, which gave the atmosphere in the room a curious, crackly feel, much like the static tingling of ozone right before a lightning strike, but she was still in uncharted territory.

"Lauren, I'm telling you, I've never felt so good in my life. I see everything so clearly now. Take the captain and Seven, for example. It's so obvious that they love each other but that neither of them will make the first move. Seven won't because she has no idea how, and Janeway won't because of her commitment to duty. Well, I say screw duty! I helped Manny and Connor find each other again at The Better Way clinic, and I can help Seven and the captain. One quick pulse and they'll be in bed together planning their wedding in no time!"

Lauren gave Bo an alarmed look. "Bo, honey, maybe we should take a detour to our cabin for a minute, and work off some of your excess energy."

"No way!" Bo said. "Oh, do you mean…? Yes! I'm totally up for that. But look, here's Sickbay right here. Let's just drop in really quickly…"

The doors whisked open at her approach. She walked through, and then stopped in her tracks.


	19. Love

With the Borg crisis taken care of, Janeway wasted no time getting back to Seven in Sickbay. To her dismay, the young woman was still unconscious.

"Is this normal, Doctor?" she asked the Emergency Medical Hologram.

"I can't say, Captain," he replied. "I've never dealt with a drone that was severed from the Collective, then re-assimilated, and then severed again."

She gave him a look that could peel paint off a bulkhead.

"But what I can say," he hastily added, "is that there's nothing wrong with her vital signs. Physically, she's healthy."

"Thank you, Doctor," she said.

"I'll be in my office," he said, and beat a retreat.

Janeway knew that the Doctor had absented himself to give her a modicum of privacy. He busied himself at his desk, his back to her and the motionless woman who lay on the biobed.

Janeway looked at Seven, allowing herself free rein to gaze at the woman in a way she seldom did, since she didn't want to be caught staring. Seven was beautiful. Her cheekbones were high and sculpted, and her eyelashes were long and thick, her lips full. Asleep, as she seemed to be, her features lost the austere arrogance that comprised Seven's near-constant expression, which Janeway knew was half actual disdain for the inefficient organic beings that surrounded her, and half defense mechanism as she navigated a world that contained confusing and bewildering unspoken rules and customs.

She hadn't intended to say anything, but as Sickbay was empty, she found herself speaking.

"Seven. I hadn't realized you had been playing euchre. I didn't know anyone on this ship even knew the game," she said, her tone light. "Once you wake up, I'll join you. I'm from Indiana, you know - we invented euchre."

The blonde woman lay quiet and still.

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised," Janeway continued. "I don't think regeneration, consuming nutritional supplements, and the occasional Velocity game is probably enough for anyone who is trying to become more of an individual. I'm just sorry that I haven't been able to spend more time with you myself.

"I know I don't have to tell you about the responsibilities of commanding a starship. If anyone understands commitment and duty, it's you. But," she said, halting a bit. "Lately I've started to wonder if I'm...also missing something.

"Is that what you were going to tell me when you were in my ready room, Seven?" the captain mused. "I had no idea where you were going with that. Well," she corrected herself, "maybe I had some idea. But I was terrified. Terrified that you were going to tell me that you had feelings for someone. And that it wasn't me. But if I'm being honest, I was even more terrified that the someone you were going to tell me about was...me."

She grasped the young woman's hand.

"Seven, even as I've wanted to help you become an individual, there is some part of me that has kept you at arm's length. I recognize that even though at the time I told myself it was to allow you room to grow, it was because I was afraid.

"Afraid of what I feel for you. Seven, I…" her voice broke.

She cleared her throat, and continued in a husky tone.

"I love you. I regret all the time we've lost that we could have been together." She closed her eyes as the barest hint of tears threatened.

"Then perhaps it is best that we do not lose any more time," Seven said, struggling to raise her torso from the biobed.

Janeway's head snapped up. "Oh, my darling," she said, and then there were no more words as Seven leaned forward and captured Janeway's lips with her own.

Janeway didn't hear the doors to Sickbay opening, but if she had looked around, she would have seen Bo charge through, buzzing and crackling and loaded for bear, but then coming to a halt as she took in the scene before her. Then she would have seen Lauren catch up to Bo, grasp her arm, and gently pull the succubus out of Sickbay.

But she saw none of this. She was lost in Seven, and at that moment, she didn't care about anything else.

* * *

Lauren had finally succeeded in getting Bo back to their cabin, successfully distracting the succubus from trying to stop by the mess hall for food, by the holodeck for a rematch of their Velocity game, and engineering for god-only-knew what purpose, just that Bo said it had something to do with the warp core.

As the doors closed behind them, Lauren considered what she was about to do. Bo definitely needed to work off some energy, but the problem was, having sex usually added to Bo's stores of chi, not subtracted. But she felt that she had to try something - Bo was almost literally bouncing off the walls as she flitted around the room, punching buttons on the replicator, a marked difference from the casual dismissal she had given the room's decor when they first entered.

"I'm telling you, Lauren, it was AMAZING! I didn't feel my dad's presence at all! Do you want a drink?" Bo buzzed over holding two glasses of white wine.

"Do you want to stay here?" Lauren asked, accepting the glass Bo offered her. She took a small sip and placed it on the table.

"For the next hour, definitely." Bo gave her a leer that was probably intended to be sexy, but her frenetic energy detracted somewhat from the intended effect. She leaned over and kissed the doctor eagerly, untucking her shirt and pulling her closer.

"That's not what I meant," Lauren said, after briefly kissing Bo back. "I meant here on this ship. Here in this universe. You could be pretty useful here, and you'd be safe from your father."

Bo started to reply, but the comm system interrupted.

"Janeway to Bo and Lauren."

"For crying out loud!" Bo said. "Captain Janeway, can you please give us an hour? Or even just a half hour? You can't be finished kissing Seven already."

There was a pause, and then the captain's voice replied with a subtle undertone of amusement.

"Apologies, Bo. But I require your presence in the conference room. It really can't wait."

"Sheesh!" Bo said. "Fine." She snatched up Ensign Quan's borrowed communicator and marched out of the cabin with Lauren scrambling to keep up.

"I'm going to give that captain a piece of my mind," Bo said. "Just because she hasn't gotten laid in four years doesn't mean that the rest of us don't need sex."

Lauren wasn't sure if she should be annoyed that yet another intimate moment had been cut short, but it seemed that she would need to keep Bo in check. She sighed to herself internally as she followed the stomping succubus down the corridor toward the turbolift. She had seen Bo determined before, but this supercharged version of Bo seemed to be incapable of focusing on one thing for more than a few moments at a time.

Maybe it was a good thing they had been interrupted, after all.


	20. Ruby Slippers

"So it has to be now, unless you want to stay with us," Janeway said. "Which you would be welcome to do."

Lauren leaned back in her chair, considering what the captain had told them. Voyager was under time pressure from two different sources that were forcing a decision right now about sending Bo and Lauren back through the wormhole. First, that the defunct Borg cube and sphere would undoubtedly attract more Borg vessels to the vicinity - indeed, the more time that passed after the drones had gone silent on the neural link, the more likely it was that other ships were already on their way to investigate. The second reason seemed even more pressing, though.

The oscillating wormhole was showing signs of degradation. While it was still open, it had entered into a spiral of gradually decreasing cohesiveness. Harry Kim had picked it up on one of his routine scans of the area, the anomalous readings catching his attention. While the wormhole was still open for now, projections showed that it would collapse in upon itself in two days' time.

Not that Voyager could afford to hang around for two more days, with the threat of more Borg ships looming on the horizon. If Bo and Lauren were going back, it needed to be within the hour.

"We could greatly use your expertise in Sickbay, Dr. Lewis," the Doctor said. "Your skills and intellect would mean that you would be very busy and valued indeed."

Lauren smiled. "I appreciate that, Doctor," she said. "But this has to be a joint decision between me and Bo. Bo, what do you think?"

Lauren honestly didn't know what she hoped Bo would say. There was a large part of her that hoped Bo would want to stay in the 24th century. The medical and scientific capabilities were far ahead of what she had access to in her own time, and she itched to delve more deeply into scientific questions that she thought she would be able to answer in days instead of months or years.

For Bo's sake, she also thought the prospect of being in a universe where her father apparently did not exist sounded appealing. She had been trying to help Bo for the last several months, but not knowing what they were up against combined with the sheer power he appeared to wield and his way of getting inside Bo's head was daunting at times.

And for herself, she had no strong ties to the 21st century. Estranged from her family and constantly aware of the way the Fae viewed humans, day-to-day life for the human doctor carried no small amount of tension.

Yes, staying in the 24th century might be best, all things considered.

"I want to go home," Bo said immediately.

Lauren felt relief. Of course Bo wanted to go home. And so did she.

"Is that okay?" Bo asked, glancing anxiously over at Lauren. She was keeping her chi-infused self remarkably under control, faced with the gravity of the situation.

"Of course," Lauren replied. "Kenzi needs you."

"That's true. But it's also my father. Knowing that there's such evil in the world, and having experienced a world where that that kind of evil doesn't exist, well - I have to help make our world a better place."

Lauren felt such a swelling of love and pride in her chest that she found it hard to speak, so she just nodded and looked at Bo with shining eyes.

"Then it's settled," the captain said. "We have the dilithium prisms ready to deploy, and B'Elanna has the transwarp coil modified to emit a tachyon stream in concert with the phasers. Seven and I will take you to Deck Four where you emerged."

* * *

On Deck Four, the Doctor was completing a final scan of Bo and Lauren's vital signs before they prepared to enter the vacuum of space surrounded by the not-so-gentle sheath of a phaser beam.

"It's good that you've ingested the chi of so many Borg," the Doctor said as he finished scanning Bo. "Your reserve should be more than adequate for the trip home."

"Yeah," Bo said. "Although I caused the deaths of thousands of beings. I feel guilty about that."

"The Borg would not have hesitated to assimilate this entire crew," Seven interjected. "Including you and Lauren. If they had been able to incorporate the distinctiveness of your ability to assimilate cellular energy from other organic beings, the Borg would have become an unstoppable force."

"They already are fairly unstoppable," Captain Janeway said dryly.

The Doctor placed his scanner and tricorder into a bag. He removed something else from the bag and handed it to Lauren.

"This is a chip that contains all of the cellular data from our scan of Bo's chi extraction," he said. "It should be compatible with twenty-first century computers. Perhaps it can be of assistance in your research."

Lauren was touched. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Ready?" Janeway asked.

"Wait!" called a voice, and the captain, Seven, the Doctor, Bo and Lauren turned at the sound of pounding feet. Ensigns Quan, Beaver and Smith were running toward them, followed by Lieutenant Hook and Lieutenant Commander Barrick.

"Yes?" the captain said, crossing her arms and regarding the quintet with amusement, carefully disguised as impatience.

"We just wanted to say goodbye," Ensign Quan said.

"And thanks for saving our lives, down on the planet," added Ensign Smith.

"And for saving all of our lives just now, from the Borg," added Ensign Beaver.

"And safe travels home," Quan finished. "It was an honor to get to know you both."

"Captain, I tried to tell them that interrupting this process merely to say 'thank you' was not logical, and that any delay that keeps us at this location for a longer period of time increases the chance that the Borg will find us," said Lieutenant Hook, giving the trio a faint look of disapproval.

"Oh, lighten up, Lieutenant," the captain said mirthfully, slapping Hook on the back.

"Vulcans don't usually find it easy to lighten up," observed Lieutenant Commander Barrick. Hook shot her a look, and Barrick smirked at her.

Bo and Lauren gave them goodbye hugs, and then, much to the captain and Seven's bemusement, went on to hug each of them too. The Doctor accepted a hug cheerfully.

"Good luck to you all, as well," Lauren said as she and Bo stood together near the bulkhead. "I hope you find your way home soon."

"We just might, at that," Janeway said. "We were able to salvage forty-two transwarp coils from the Borg vessels, in addition to the one we're using to send you home. If we can adapt Voyager's warp drive to make use of transwarp technology, and can bolster the integrity field accordingly, then we can be home in a matter of months, not decades. We'll have you to thank for that, as well."

Bo smiled. Then a thought struck her. She removed a communicator badge from her pocket.

"Quan! Catch!" she called, tossing it toward the ensign, who, though startled, managed to grab it before it hit the deck.

"Thanks for the loaner," Bo said, and winked.

"Okay, people, it's time to get this show on the road. Janeway to bridge and engineering."

" _Bridge here."_

" _Engineering here."_

"Initiate phasers and tachyon beam on my mark."

" _Aye, Captain,"_ came the replies.

"Safe travels!" called the Doctor as he led the crew out of the immediate area. Since they didn't know exactly how Bo and Lauren had been deposited on Deck Four, they deemed it prudent to vacate the area, lest the Starfleet crew end up in the past, in a different dimension.

Once they had relocated, the captain spoke again.

"Initiate Operation Ruby Slippers."

The acknowledgements came back from the bridge and engineering, and Janeway gazed at Seven as they waited for the phasers to finish opening up the temporary portal to Bo and Lauren's universe. The Borg favored her with a look that seemed impassive, but Janeway could detect the tenderness underneath. She didn't know exactly what would lie ahead for the two of them, but she knew that she was looking very forward to finding out.

Though she didn't say so, Bo and Lauren had also given her a gift that was much more precious to her than transwarp coils. It was the ability to recognize that she loved Seven of Nine, and the realization that she didn't need to defer her happiness.

" _Bridge to Janeway,"_ Harry Kim's voice interrupted her reverie.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

_"It's complete. All sensors show that the wormhole was open for the duration, and Bo and Lauren's life signs are no longer on Voyager. Now the wormhole is closed - permanently."_

Janeway nodded.

"Bon voyage," she murmured, leading the crew back to the turbolift. She noticed Ensign Quan walking beside her.

"Ensign," she said, "we need to talk about your unauthorized transport of Bo to the Borg sphere. That was completely against protocol."

"I know, Captain," Quan said. "I accept full responsibility."

"I'm going to remove you from Operations and will be putting a note in your Starfleet file that you violated regulations by transporting civilians without proper authorization," Janeway continued.

"Shall I report to the brig, Captain?"

"On the contrary," Janeway said with a grin. "I'm assigning you to be my command candidate. We need people who aren't afraid to break the rules when the situation calls for it. Without your quick decision, I'd be a drone right now, and so would Seven and B'Elanna.

"Well done, _Lieutenant_ Quan."


	21. Home

In an empty, cavernous room in the Temple of Epona, the dingy, dark abandoned pile of rubble along one wall suddenly roared into life. Though no one was there to see it happen, the portal's opening blazed a bright white-blue. After a couple of seconds, two women were ejected and landed roughly on the floor.

"I think we made it," Lauren said, looking around.

Bo stood up and brushed off her clothes. "I think you're right." She offered a hand to Lauren and helped the doctor to her feet, pulling her upright with enough force that Lauren ended up off-balance and fell into Bo's arms. It hadn't exactly been an accident, and Bo kissed her with enthusiasm.

"Finally, we're alone and no ship's captain or doctor or alien attack is going to interrupt us," Bo said.

A piercing shriek reverberated throughout the cavernous room, startling the women. They turned around to see two Priestesses of Epona entering through a doorway, clearly alarmed at their presence. As they watched, the priestesses took a deep breath and then screeched again at the top of their lungs.

Lauren winced.

"You know how interdimensional travel always gets my motor running," she said. "But the screaming priestesses are killing the mood. Also, it smells like dead Revenants."

"No argument here," Bo agreed.

"Let's go home."

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: I hope you had as much fun reading about two inhabitants of twenty-first century Faeronto gallivanting around the Delta Quadrant as I had writing about it. My representation of Janeway and Seven owes a lot (a lot A LOT) to Gina Dartt, who wrote the authoritative J7 fanfic. If you love Star Trek: Voyager and want to read some truly excellent fanfic, just google "gina dartt" and you'll find her website, Novel Expectations. Start with the Just Between series, and go from there!
> 
> This story is dedicated to my wonderful spouse, who is always enthusiastic and encouraging whenever the fanfic bug bites me. Thank you for assimilating me, darling.


End file.
